THE DEVELOPMENT OF SNOW AND ICE CONTROL MACHINERY

The winter climate of Japan is characterized by much snowfall and becomes more complex with the geographical features and seasonal wind. The Japan Highway Public Corporation (JH) is trying to expand the function of snow and ice control machinery in order to accomplish more efficient, faster and safer expressway operation. The most critical issues is the development of various efficient machines and equipment. In this paper, some representative trial examples o the developed are introduced. An automatic information collection system on road surface conditions is introduced. This information is fundamental for snow and ice control operations and this task can be carried out only by a little number of experts who are able to judge surface conditions correctly. The developed system has been tests and reasonable results have been obtained so far. Other examples of snow and ice control that are researched in this paper are snow removal trucks, slush removal trucks and a snow removal machine around emergency telephones. All of these systems are only a part of the JH's attempts to make further advancements on snow and ice control machinery and equipment. It is believed that this development would also lead to providing drivers with safe, comfortable, and convenient conditions on expresseways.