To add year-round value to the state’s snow fences, the Minnesota Department of Transportation conducted a research study exploring the functional and economic viability of installing solar panels on the fences to create clean energy without using any additional land.
This new Clear Roads synthesis project surveyed member states and other winter maintenance professionals and reviewed relevant literature to gain a greater understanding of current practices for the in-house production of brine.
Clear Roads has prepared a listing of technical sessions and posters related to winter maintenance that were presented at the 2025 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. The list includes links to more than two dozen papers and posters on a wide range of winter maintenance topics, including materials, equipment, technology, and performance management.
To help spread the word about Clear Roads and its work to support innovations in winter maintenance planning and operations across the country, Clear Roads advocates traveled to Washington D.C. earlier this month to present an informational poster to thousands of transportation professionals during the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB).
Clear Roads project 18-03, Evaluation of SSI and WSI Variables, produced a step-by-step guide and flowchart tool to help agencies identify or develop severity index methods to fit their needs and available data sources.
As estimating the impact of weather on roadway maintenance resources is becoming an increasingly important issue for agencies across the country, a recently completed Clear Roads project, 21-04, produced additional training modules geared toward three key audiences: division directors, snow and ice managers, and supervisors.
Many of the product listing on Clear Roads’ Qualified Products List show an expiration date of 12/31/24. Once expired, products will be dropped from the list and vendors will need to complete a new product submission form to be added again.
Maintenance equipment exposed to chloride deicers can quickly corrode, presenting a common challenge for transportation agencies across the country. In 2015, Clear Roads project 13-04 published a Manual of Best Practices to compile the various products agencies use as well as guidance for preventing corrosion on highway maintenance equipment.
Clear Roads is currently soliciting investigator proposals for three new research projects.
To help agencies identify which highway segments are most sensitive, this Clear Roads project developed a geospatial tool that offers an analysis of environmental impacts that can be balanced against other safety and performance objectives.
This Clear Roads project identified equipment improvements and refinements to the mechanical rocker test, giving agencies a more accurate tool for evaluating deicer performance.