Winter Road Maintenance 2023 Forum was held in Moscow on February 15-17 in the framework of the Safe and High-Quality Motorways national project implementation focused on the enhancement of traffic safety, digitization and automation of the road and transport infrastructure in winter. Representatives of 27 regions and participants form Belarus attended the event.
Managers and leading specialists of road and construction organizations, heads of departments of regional and city administrations familiarized themselves with the best practices for the operation and maintenance of street and road networks, artificial structures, and safety measures in winter through the example of Moscow and the Moscow Region.
Evgeniy Nemirovskiy, Adviser to UZPM General Director for Development, presented anti-slippery agents used for deicing on Moscow roads and pavements. As compared to conventional deicing materials, such as road salt and salt-and-sand mixture, UZPM materials demonstrate much lower consumption rate per 1 m2. Moreover, advanced deicing materials easily melt ice even at extremely low temperatures and have passed a comprehensive assessment of their environmental compliance; they are safe for people and animals.
“Taking the metropolitan city as an example we can see how UZPM deicing agents work meeting GOST R 59434 and requirements imposed on the quality of winter road maintenance. Our material reduces the time required for road maintenance, as well as the cost of maintenance. The same length of roads requires deicing material in the amount which is at least two times less that of technical salt; this means less storage space, less man-hours for road treatment, and less usage of municipal machinery,” Evgeniy Nemirovskiy said. “Budget savings are provided by reduced costs for storage and winter road maintenance. In addition to this, those cities where sand, and salt-and-sand mixtures or granite are still used will see savings in spring. The length of Moscow storm-water drains is about 8,000 kilometers. The distance from Moscow to Blagoveshchensk is 150 km shorter! Just imagine how much money would be required to clean such long storm-water drains. But those who know how to watch money use advanced deicing products that do not clog storm-water drains.”
As of today, Ural Plant of Deicing Materials is the only Company that manufactures products which have been certified as conforming to new GOST R 58427-2020 standard concerning deicing materials. Solid, combined, and two-phase deicing agents have been successfully certified in the National Certification System.
The new GOST imposes strict requirements on modern agents when it concerns environment friendliness and corrosivity, twice toughening the requirement concerning their impact on metal elements of the urban environment. At the same time, deicing agents used in pedestrian zones must not have impact on footwear leather and must be hypoallergenic. The new standard also strives for the reduction of dust in cities; therefore, the requirements concerning the size of fine fraction granules used in winter road maintenance have also been tightened.
Beginning with the introduction of new national standards for winter maintenance of cities, Russian road workers must work according to the new rules. The Forum participants paid much attention to the experience of the implementation of the best technologies for the operation of transport infrastructure facilities in the road industry and development of interregional partnerships. Competent and efficient winter road maintenance is one of the most important factors for safe and comfortable living in modern cities.