Ice and snow on streets, roads, pavements, sidewalks and cycle paths cause problems for users and require maintenance actions. Such actions influence safety, accessibility, mobility and vehicle operating costs. Winter maintenance operations also impact on the environment. Consequently, it is essential to develop effective strategies and methods for maintenance actions and to document different winter standards. It is also important to develop methods for efficient measurement of the standards achieved. A strategic objective is to make the contractors understand the area contract as a maintenance service contract and the road users as customers. In reality, today's challenge is no longer to put together road weather information networks, but rather to optimize the use of the large mass of data for tracking operations in real time and developing decision and management supporttools. Moreover, the need for standardization, data sharing, and the development of operations and management support systems depend on initiativesthat spotlight international harmonization. The points that countries share in terms of the issues involved in developing road weather information systems are the main justification for the desired sharing of data on bestpractices, over and above simple data exchange, so as to meet the needs of roadway users. The organizational mode of the activities of winter maintenance (private public, articulation planner, main contractor, operator) differs notably between the countries. It is necessary to know the climate and the road consequences of weather, in order to know the amplitude of the phenomena and to determine what must be inserted in a contract. The levels of service must be very clearly defined and well understood by all partners. The check procedures in particular for the road condition are to be developed by establishing indicators and methods of measurement. A life cycle assessment of the environmental impacts of spreading materials showed that less than half of the environmental impact was generated by the products when spreading salt and abrasives. Other impacts are energy and vehicle emissions, production and transport of materials. Important activities start at the design of the road and further comprise drainage and rainwatermanagement, depots, equipment, salt management, training and communication. So winter road needs should be considered at every stage of planning a road! For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
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