The National Cooperative Highway Research Program, NCHRP, has approved the completion of the latest Guide for Snow and Ice Control Operations, which is now pending publication by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). This updated guide will replace the original manual published over 20 years ago. The AASHTO Guide for Snow and Ice Control was published in 1999. This guide became one of AASHTO’s “bestselling” publications in its lifetime. However, over the past two decades since publication, as state and local transportation agencies, with the assistance of researchers and experts, improved and expanded winter operation practices, parts of the 1999 guide eventually became outdated.
In 2008, the Update of the AASHTO Guide for Snow and Ice Control (Weather Solutions Group, 2008) was released. The updates provided in the guide focused on equipment, materials, and weather information. The chapter on equipment updated and addressed the improvements to snow removal equipment and the latest technologies. The chapter on materials provided new details regarding the chemicals and mixtures used at the time to prevent ice bonding to the pavement, now commonly known as anti-icing. The chapter also contained new information regarding melting and removing snow and ice. The chapter on weather information discussed advancements in weather forecasting and the value of road weather information systems (RWIS).
