MINSALT: AN EXPERIMENT WITH UNSALTED ROAD IN VAESTERBOTTEN COUNTY

This study forms a subsidiary project in the major research project Reducing the damage from salt for road maintenance purposes - MINSALT. The purpose of this report is to study the consequences for road users and road maintenance authorities, as well as road user opinion, when the extent of the salted road network is reduced. Over a period of two winters, a section of the E4 just over 50 km in length selected as a test road, where no deicing was allowed. The following effects were studied: 1) Road condition; 2) Friction; 3) Variation in traffic flow according to road condition; 4) Spot speed; 5) Standstills and tailbacks; 6) Accidents; 7) Implemented actions and the costs of the road maintenance authority; 8) Road user opinion; 9) Work environment of the road maintenance authority; 10) Experience of the road maintenance authority. Follow-up studies show for example that the experiment has had the following effects; an increase of one third in the number of days with icy and snow-covered roads, the police reported accidents increased by 33%, and most of the road users are against the use of salt. (A)