Towards Sustainable Winter Road Maintenance: Development of Ice-breaking Pavement

摘要

In recent years, the effects of climate change have become more pronounced worldwide,rneven in winter. Severe snowfall afflicts northern Europe; the coldest winter in thirty yearsrnwas recorded in eastern Asia. As regards roads, conventional anti-icing measures usingrnchemicals such as salt tend to exhibit declining performance over time. Therefore, winterrnroad maintenance is an important challenge, in terms of both sustainability and road safety.rnIn order to tackle this problem from a paving perspective, ice-breaking pavementrntechnology has been developed to achieve the following benefits: prevention of ice builduprnon roads, mitigation of environmental impact, and reduction in traffic accidents. Thisrnpaper describes the practical and environmental effects of ice-breaking pavementrntechnology through its development and application, with the following conclusions beingrndrawn from this study. With regard to serviceability, laboratory and field tests show thatrnany ice forming on the road surface is effectively crushed due to the flexing of rolled rubberrnaggregate chips at the surface. In terms of practical considerations, a computer simulationrnusing Finite Element analysis explains the mechanism for the ice-layer breakage and therndesign details, such as the appropriate amount of rubber aggregate to use. Finally, fieldrnmonitoring reveals that the ice-breaking pavement retains good surface condition andrnperformance even after three years, and it is likely to be useful in mitigating environmentalrndamage, as no chemicals are applied to the road surface.