Kroon, Ashley

Various costs and benefits are incurred while performing winter maintenance operations. However, a summary of these costs and benefits for different maintenance scenarios has not been compiled to date. This report summarizes past work that documented the quantified and non-quantified costs and benefits of three different winter maintenance strategies of interest; use of abrasives, salts and other chemicals in solid and liquid forms, and snow plows. Basic strategies were defined as plowing and use of abrasives, intermediate strategies were defined as the use of rock salt and salt brine (NaCl), and advanced strategies were defined as the use of corrosion inhibitors, inhibited salt brine, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, and blended products. These approaches employ different components, both in terms of equipment as well as materials. Some components of the various strategies have better cost and benefit information available than others. This is particularly true of sanding/abrasives and salting. Other, more recently developed and employed approaches and materials have more limited cost and benefit information published. There are also a number of different environmental impacts associated with different components of each maintenance strategy. Using information gained from the literature review, surveys, and interviews summary benefit-cost matrices were developed for various winter maintenance strategies. Information and data gap analysis has aided in identification of areas for recommended research. This document is intended for use by transportation agencies, such as by maintenance supervisors, to aid in the decision making process in terms of the selection of winter maintenance strategies used to achieve a prescribed LOS.

This letter example pertains to report 2019-42G, A Guide to Successfully Convert Severely Distressed Paved Roads to Engineered Unpaved Roads, and also appears in Appendix G of this report.

This fact sheet pertains to report 2019-42G, A Guide to Successfully Convert Severely Distressed Paved Roads to Engineered Unpaved Roads, and also appears in Appendix G of this report.

The checklist and forms pertain to report 2019-42G, A Guide to Successfully Convert Severely Distressed Paved Roads to Engineered Unpaved Roads, and they also appear in Appendix A of this report.

This document provides guidance on converting severely distressed paved roads to engineered unpaved roads. Chapter 1 provides background on unpaving and an introduction to the guide. Chapter 2 guides the practitioner through a process of deciding whether a road is a candidate for unpaving and introduces the importance of involving the public in the decision. Chapter 3 provides a step-by-step process for doing a road investigation. Simple tools to analyze test results and determine likely future performance of the road are introduced. Guidance for considering potential safety issues is also provided. Chapter 4 covers designing the engineered unpaved road, introduces tools for determining an optimum blend of the existing materials, and if necessary, provides supplemental materials that may be required to increase structural capacity or optimize performance. Guidance for selecting an appropriate chemical treatment is also provided. Links to web-based tools for material blending, unpaved road performance prediction, and chemical treatment selection are provided as well. Chapter 5 summarizes key factors to consider during the conversion process and when maintaining the converted road. Chapter 6 introduces tools to determine life-cycle costs for converting roads. And finally, Chapter 7 provides guidance for communicating with, and involving the public in, the decision to convert a road or road segment.

On behalf of the Minnesota Local Road Research Board (LRRB); the Western Transportation Institute (WTI) at Montana State University (MSU) and the University of California Davis (UCD) developed A Guide to Successfully Convert Severely Distressed Paved Roads to Engineered Unpaved Roads. The guide serves as a comprehensive information source on effective practices for converting severely distressed paved roads to acceptable unpaved surfaces. This final report recounts the effort associated with the seven tasks involved in the completion of this project; the location of each task deliverable; and future research needs to advance this topic.

A refined return on investment (ROI) methodology is explored to supplement existing benefit-cost analysis (BCA) tools; data; and methodologies available to evaluate MnPASS managed lane projects. This would also facilitate more consistent and standardized measures for MnPASS system assessment and comparison. In this study; researchers investigated a more comprehensive set of factors; variables; and perspectives to include within the refined ROI analysis framework based on the limitations summarized in the current MnPASS BCA methodology; the major concerns identified from agency staff interviews; and available data resources. The selected cost components included initial capital costs; annual operating and maintenance costs; remaining capital value; and the potential benefit components consisted of travel time savings; vehicle operating cost savings; safety benefits; travel time reliability; transit benefit; induced traffic; emergency response; emissions impacts; and noise impacts. Tractable calculation methods were further explored for each cost and benefit measurement in order to facilitate use of the economic analysis tool. To verify the performance of the proposed methodology; the research team conducted a comparative demonstration; which produced a higher benefit-cost ratio than previous work. Furthermore; the contributions from additional benefit considerations highlighted the importance of integrating a wider range of project impact categories in the MnPASS ROI analyses.