Every year the st. Paul district of the corps of engineers dredges huge volumes of sediment from the mississippi, st. Croix, and minnesota rivers in minnesota. That dredged material is deposited in established corps upland disposal sites. The corps makes the material available for public and private use at no cost. A study was conducted to analyze the acceptability of the material and the cost benefits for the minneota department of transportation (mn/dot) and the corps, with mn/dot's use of the dridged material as road ice control sand. The findings were as follows: (a) mn/dot could realize considerable savings through the use of dredged material as ice control sand; the savings would be significant even with the purchase or lease of a portable screener; (b) field tests demonstrated that the material was of the same or better quality as commercially supplied sand and that it is effective for ice control; and (c) this use of the dredged material helps retard the rate of filling of corps disposal sites, which helps reduce corps operations costs. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1229, Economics, finance, planning, and administration.
Abstract