PURPOSES: This study aims to establish the priority of introducing anti-icing spray system for regions of the National Highways in South Korea. Using this study, a logical plan for instituting such an anti-icing spray system can be established for the National Highways
METHODS : The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed to prioritize the implementation of an anti-icing spray system on Korean highways. For this purpose, an existing scoring table developed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure Transport Affair was slightly modified in order to reflect recent trends in winter maintenance. A survey was conducted to gather the preferences regarding the developed hierarchy of road experts and agencies. Finally, the final score was produced by integrating the scoring results with estimated weights for each evaluation criterion.
RESULTS: In general, Honam and the metropolitan areas have relatively high priority while other areas such as Chungcheong, Young Nam, and Gang Won appear to be uniform in importance in terms of establishing an anti-icing spray system. This result may indicate that historical weather data and traffic volumes are significant factors in deciding in winter maintenance polices
CONCLUSIONS : In this study, useful insights are suggested regarding winter maintenance by simultaneously performing rapid snow removal and proactive treatment. Issues of resource allocation may be potential research items in the field transportation engineering.
PURPOSES : This study demonstrates the need for the collection of road weather information in order to perform efficient snow removal works during the winter season. Snow removal operations are usually dependent upon weather information obtained from the Automatic Weather Station provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration. However, there are some difference between road weather and weather forecasts in their scope. This is because general weather forecasts are focused on macroscopic standpoints rather than microscopic perspectives. METHODS : In this study, the relationship between snow removal works and historical weather forecasts are properly analyzed to prove the importance of road weather information. We collected both weather data and snow removal works during winter season at "A" regional offices in Gangwon areas. RESULTS : Results showed that the validation of weather forecasts for snow removal works were depended on the height difference between AWS location and its neighboring roadway. CONCLUSIONS : Namely, it appears that road weather information should be collected where AWS location and its neighboring roadway have relatively big difference in their heights.