**1. Introduction**

The transportation sector is one of the key contributors to greenhouse gas emissions that are potentially affecting global warming. A great majority of emissions caused by the transportation sector originate from passenger vehicles and trucks, due to exhaust fumes. The combustion of fossil fuels in engines is thus one of the most important contributors to atmospheric greenhouse gases. Traffic delays, radiative forcing, and rolling resistance are factors, which have a significant impact on the fuel consumption of vehicles and trucks. However, also the management of road infrastructure is directly related with

environmental impacts, due to raw material consumption and energy needs during the construction and maintenance of the road, as well as during end-of-life activities [1–3].

European Green Deal introduced several proposals for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to the 1990 level. One of the proposals refers to providing efficient, safe, and environmentally sustainable transport [4]. Within this frame, winter road maintenance (WRM) plays an important role. The main activity of WRM agencies is reducing ice and snow from roadways, which is of crucial importance to provide safe driving conditions for traffic and smooth mobility. In countries with cold and humid winters, snowstorms may cause problems in the mobility of road traffic resulting in congestions and delays. In such conditions, fuel economy of vehicles is deteriorated, and consequently emissions increase. From this point of view, ensuring snow- and ice-free road is of great importance to achieve targets set by European Green Deal. However, winter road maintenance also yields a significant amount of greenhouse gases and other emissions, especially in cold regions, with a relatively high frequency of such activities [5]. Moreover, salt and other deicers, which are gritted on the road, pose a negative impact on groundwater and freshwater quality, and consequently also on biodiversity and human health [5, 6]. This represents a serious environmental problem taking into account that significant amounts of road salt and other chemicals are used to remove ice and snow accumulated on the road or to prevent icing and snow compaction on the roads [5]. WRM agencies are under pressure to improve not only the effectiveness and efficiency of their activities but also to optimize the activities from the aspect of sustainability. To improve environmental sustainability, special attention regarding the application of materials, strategies, and equipment is required [7]. Application of best practices from other studies can be a pathway toward achieving environmental sustainability in the field of winter road maintenance.

Several authors addressed the problem of environmental sustainability of winter road maintenance and the number of such studies is growing in recent years. Cui et al. [7] provided a framework for assessing sustainability in the field of winter road maintenance with salt as a road deicer. Adequate selection of deicers (road salt, agro-based, and complex chlorides/minerals-based products) is of crucial importance for successful implementation of winter road maintenance. Decision on selection of deicers has been typically taken based on their cost and effectiveness. However, the environmental impacts of salt or other chemicals used for deicing should also represent an important aspect when deciding about different deicing alternatives. Environmental impacts can be direct, due to release of chemicals into natural environment (soil, surface water), or indirect. The latter refers to the repair of damage (mostly related with corrosion) that deicers cause on vehicles and road infrastructure. Repair of such damage is associated with environmental impacts as well [7].

Environmental impacts related with winter road maintenance in Norway were evaluated in a study by Vignisdottir et al. [5]. They took into account the production and transportation of road salt (deicer) and vehicles for winter road maintenance and the operation of the winter road maintenance (use of the vehicles for plowing and salt spreading, associated with fuel and salt consumption). Data on quantities of road salt used for deicing and data on fuel consumption of WRM vehicles were gathered from public reports, so the results of LCA reflect realistic conditions. The study showed that emissions related to winter road maintenance in Norway contribute around 1% of the total emissions from road transportation in Norway. Such relatively high contribution can be explained by two facts. The first one is that Norway is the leading country in the use of electric and hybrid electric vehicles, which cause zero- and

#### *Pathway toward Sustainable Winter Road Maintenance (Case Study) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110764*

low emissions. The second fact is that most part of Norway has a cold and relatively humid climate. In such regions, winter road maintenance is extensive.

Vignisdottir et al. [8] provided a comprehensive review of 35 scientific papers dedicated to the evaluation of environmental impacts and effects of winter road maintenance. Based on this review, some research gaps were emphasized. In most of studies, only local environmental effects of deicers were addressed. While rare studies provide a holistic overview on environmental impacts related with winter road maintenance operation methods or material selection.

The goal of this study is to compare the environmental impacts of two scenarios related to the operation of winter road maintenance. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method was applied to conduct such a comparison. In baseline scenario, the agency responsible for WRM does not use a road-weather information system, meaning that it does not have accurate information about the exact timing of the beginning of the snowstorm event. Winter road maintenance operations start only when snow began accumulating on the road.

In alternative scenario, the WRM agency does use road-weather information system. In such a case, it obtains reliable information on timing of snowfall event and if snow or ice will accumulate on the road. Based on such detailed weather forecast, the WRM agency can take preventive measures, and if necessary, start gritting the road just before the snowfall event. In such conditions, the agency can optimize the consumption of road salt required for anti-icing and/or deicing. The purpose of this study is to benchmark the environmental impacts of baseline WRM operation scenario versus alternative scenario (preventive WRM operation scenario).
