NWSRG Practical guide for winter service
Practical guidance for the winter maintenance industry.
Acknowledgement
Documents displayed on this page are produced by the National Winter Service Research Group. If you are involved in delivering Winter services in the United Kingdom, you would benefit from being a member of the Group. Please visit the main home page for further information regarding the research group and its members: www.nwsrg.org
Using the Guide
Outline on the purpose of the Practical Guidance and how to use the guide effectively.
Planning for Winter Service Delivery
The guidance explains the need for good planning before the winter seasons starts, including:
- Review of current polices and practices
- Developing service plans based on local needs
- Adopting a risk and evidence based approach
- ‘Well managed highway infrastructure’ Code of Practice
Salt Storage
This section of the Guide informs practitioners on optimum salt moisture contents and storage methods. Advice on calibration, adjustment and spread rates for non-optimum conditions is also provided. This assists practitioners to:
- Improve salt spreading performance
- Reduce under-spreading and over-spreading parts of the carriageways
- Reduce wastage
- Enable spread rates to be reduced, thus reducing the total amount of salt used
Treatment Methods
This guide explains the principal methods for the spreading of de-icing materials, applied by vehicles or other mechanical means, including:
- Common treatment methods
- Treatment types
- Benefits of additives
- Equipment and facilities
Spreader Management
Guidance and a specification have been produced covering the requirements and methods for calibrating spreaders to maintain optimum safe and economical salting. This is a crucial component in ensuring that spreading performance is optimised and salt wastage is minimised.
Spread Rates
Guidance has been produced regarding precautionary spread rates to enable economical and sustainable salting with the advantage of also minimising environmental impacts.
The guidance explains why salt condition, calibration and spreader performance are important and provides a decision making process for determining spread rates based on:
- Weather and road surface conditions
- Residual salt levels
- Traffic levels
- Types of surfacing
Treatments for Extreme Cold
Guidance based on the latest available research results regarding extreme cold treatments. This includes the storage and use of alternative de-icer materials to replace or increse the effectiveness of sodium chloride at tempertaures below -7oC in normal winter humidity conditions or -5oC in low winter humidity (>80%) conditions.
Treatments for Snow and Ice
The guidance explains when and how to treat snow and ice effectively, including:
- Using snow ploughs effectively
- Where to plough snow
- Treatments before snow and freezing rain and during snow
- Treatments for slush, thin layers of ice, compacted snow and ice
