Estimating Statewide Benefits of Winter Maintenance Operations

Abstract

Winter highway maintenance activities offer direct and indirect benefits to the public. However, the cost of such activities is such a major outlay that it demands close scrutiny. There is a need to understand better and quantitatively estimate the benefits of winter road maintenance. Therefore, the work discussed in this paper was undertaken to quantitatively assess the benefits of winter highway operations at the state level. Methodologies were developed to estimate the major benefits of winter maintenance, including safety improvements, travel time savings, and fuel savings. A Minnesota case was used to demonstrate the methodologies and quantify those benefits. Results of the case study showed the benefits of winter highway maintenance by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to be $227 million per winter season, with $168 million of safety benefits, $11 million of mobility benefits, and $48 million of fuel savings. The benefit–cost ratio of winter highway operations in Minnesota was 6.2, in which material costs were taken into account.