Snow & ice databook edition 2006.

The Snow and Ice Databook 2006 compiles contributions managed by the PIARC Winter Maintenance Technical Committee (TC3.4) between April 2004 and January 2006. The whole organisation of winter maintenance, the operational management, the user needs and many other matters are directly dependant on a country's characteristics. Therefore the two first chapters describe relevant general themes like demography, political organisation, road network length and classification, traffic parameters and of course statistics on temperature, icing and winter precipitation. It is important for this to be borne in mind before studying and comparing the winter maintenance practices around the participating countries. The core of the report i.e. the description of the winter maintenance practices is handled by a third chapter titled "Winter Road Management". This section aims more particularlyto present the rules and the standards that form the framework of the maintenance practices, including legal obligation, service level, quality standards, performance indicators and rules regarding materials and equipment. It also explains how the services are organised and operated, including organisation of the road administration, public-private partnership, snow and ice control measures, traffic restrictions, meteorological informationand forecast and Road Weather Information System (RWIS). The chapter alsofocuses on the question of assessing the snow and ice control measures, including cost and benefits analysis, efficiency measurement, payment regulation and competition between contractors. Finally, the last topic discussed here covers all methods, systems and equipment set up to ensure the traffic safety and the information of the road users. The innovative technologies and the new management or organisation approaches that each country is dealing with are presented briefly. The last chapter analyses and illustrates the on-going research and studies that aim to improve the road winter management. For the covering abstract see ITRD E143097.