Highway interactions with the surrounding natural environment have consequences for highway operating authorities, highway users, adjacent property owners and the public agencies responsible for soil, vegetation and water quality. Consequences to the highway are primarily through increased maintenance costs due to deicing salt application and increased accident risk due to blowing snow, slippery road surfaces, obscured sight lines and animal collisions. Effects outside the highway are caused by the transport of substances such as salt, hydrocarbons and heavy metals. Both effects to the highway and effects caused by the highway can be controlled through design features within the highway right-of-way. These include drainage features which control or remediate contaminated runoff and specially adapted landscape features and infrastructure which minimize the effects of blowing snow and the use of deicing salt and weed control chemicals. These features have proven effective on an individual basis at test sites in Ontario but have not been applied as an integrated system. This paper presents concepts for developing an integrated roadside for one Ontario site. These concepts are presently being applied to and tested for several Ontario sites in terms of the benefits, direct and indirect cost savings, safety and maintenence, as well as design implications and environmental tradeoff. The benefits and tradeoffs are site specific. (A)
Abstract