A case study of the impact of Winter road sand/salt and street sweeping on road dust re-entrainment

Abstract

Resuspended road dust is an important contributor to ambient particulate matter (PM). In areas with significant snow events, the use of wintertime roadway abrasives for traction control can result in increased PM emissions. An alternative control measure is to use chemical deicers prior to a snow event to minimize ice formation and reduce the need for abrasives. Street sweeping is also commonly used to reduce the impact of re-entrained abrasive material after the snow pack on the road has cleared. In this study, we performed roadside measurements of PM flux and instrumented vehicle PM measurements to evaluate the effectiveness of street sweeping to reduce dust re-entrainment and assess the impact of abrasives and deicers on ambient PM near an alpine lake (Lake Tahoe). The results indicate use of liquid deicers contributes less to road dust emissions than abrasives. Street sweeping was found to increase the PM 10 re-entrainment rate of the remaining road dust. Emission factors for roads in the study area (a snowy mountain climate) tend to decrease significantly from late Spring to early Summer by as much as a factor of 4.