Research of deicing agents for improving road safety in the conditions of the I-st road building climatic zone

Abstract

The authors present an article reflecting one of the urgent problems of the winter period in our country is the accident rate on highways and city streets. The winter period in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is 7 months, which determines the importance of increasing the level of traffic safety on highways and city streets and their winter maintenance. The main winter maintenance task in urban areas is to combat winter slippery conditions for safe riding of road users. Winter slipperiness on urban streets is one of the dangerous factors that worsen traffic conditions and contribute to an increase in the road accidents probability. The solution to the winter slipperiness problem includes the effective deicing agents distribution on the road surface to improve road safety. In large cities of central Russia, salt (NaCl) is mainly used, as well as sand-salt mixture, which work effectively taking into account the geographical location and climatic conditions of these areas. Salt reagents in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) low temperature conditions cannot work effectively, as they are not suitable for the temperature setting. Due to this, the search for suitable deicing agents for the conditions of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), in particular for the city of Yakutsk is the purpose of the study. The article considers the most suitable deicing agents used in the Yakutsk conditions for the I-st road building climatic zone. Within the study framework the friction deicing agents such as river sand and crushed stone of fine fraction 3×10 mm were studied. At the same time, experiments have shown that the use of crushed stone as a deicing agent is not a perfect material, which also has a number of disadvantages such as storm water channels clogging, additional costs and difficulties in cleaning from the roadway and from green areas. Combating winter slipperiness and the use of deicing agents is one of the measures to improve road safety, which requires further study and continuation of scientific research of deicing agents in the conditions of Yakutsk.