Sweden: argument for snowmelt systems heats up

A recent study by Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology concludes that pavement and road snowmelt systems reduce the risk of slipping in winter conditions. The study compared statistics from 20 of the country's largest cities, according to a report in the newspaper Göteborgs Posten. It found that the difference in accidents between heated ground and unheated ground was so large that four of five slipping accidents could be avoided through snowmelt systems.
November 12, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

A recent study by Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology concludes that pavement and road snowmelt systems reduce the risk of slipping in winter conditions.

The study compared statistics from 20 of the country's largest cities, according to a report in the newspaper Göteborgs Posten. It found that the difference in accidents between heated ground and unheated ground was so large that four of five slipping accidents could be avoided through snowmelt systems.

The 3530 Swedish Transport Administration – 1096 Trafikverket - concluded that this should open the way for more investment in heated streets.

Early last year, the university published a paper on hydronic heating pavements - HHP – completed by an engineering student as part of his doctoral work. An HHP system, consisting of pipes embedded into the road, is based on heat transfer between the pipes and the road surface. Thermal properties of the road materials will play an important role in the efficiency of the HHP system, according to the paper Thermal Properties of Asphalt Concretes and Numerical Simulations, by Raheb Mirzanamadi.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Road safety of concern in Sweden and Israel
    January 8, 2015
    Worrying data on road safety has been released from Sweden and Israel. Sweden’s record on road safety is one of the best in the world, with a combination of tough enforcement and stiff penalties along with effective driver education and training having helped lower the country’s fatality rate. However the latest official figures from the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) show that 275 people were killed on Swedish roads in 2014, compared with 260 people in 2013. This may yet prove to be a stat
    Read More
  • Breathing Ecological Roads – GRAA winner
    May 10, 2018
    The IRF office in Washington has presented an award to revolutionary ecological permeable pavement that helps avoid heat islands Climate specialists and town planners everywhere are increasingly aware of the thermal impacts of city pavements which trap heat on hot summer days, and are known as “urban heat islands”. These heat islands can adversely impact the sustainability of cities by increasing the dependence on mechanical cooling. Permeable pavements, such as porous asphalt, offer some relief but typi
    Read More
  • New methods for non-destructive concrete testing
    August 29, 2017
    How best is it possible to assess the state of concrete in a road pavement, bridge deck or tunnel wall? One of the most reliable ways is to take a core of concrete from the structure to analyse and test in the laboratory. One downside to this method is that doing the test creates weak points in the structure that must then be repaired. Another is that the frequency of such cores cannot be too great – so it is possible that some problem areas will be missed. New technologies from the world of geospatial eng
    Read More
  • Fuel savings from road surfaces
    May 23, 2012
    A new study by civil engineers at MIT shows that using stiffer pavements on America’s roads could reduce vehicle fuel consumption by as much as 3%, that could add up to US$15.6 billion at today’s oil prices. This would result in an accompanying annual decrease in CO2 emissions of 46.5 million tonnes. The study, released in a recent peer-reviewed report, is the first to use mathematical modelling rather than roadway experiments to look at the effect of pavement deflection on vehicle fuel consumption across t
    Read More

Highlighted Content