摘要: |
There is growing evidence that the use of salt on roadways can cause various environmental problems including effects on groundwater and surface water. In addition, there is some evidence that road salt can cause premature deterioration of roads and bridges, as well as premature deterioration of vehicle parts. The extent of these environmental, infrastructure, and public impacts are not known with certainty. The goal of this project will be to undertake a risk management analysis to evaluate the use of deicing chemicals used by MaineDOT in regard to the environmental impacts, sustainability, safety concerns, and public policy implications. The project will look specifically at the long term sustainability of current "bare roads" policies. The study will look at the public policy choices and tradeoffs involved with using road salt. This study will be approached from a risk management perspective using numerous sources of information, including public & private agency reports, conferences, databases, think tank reports, interviews, MaineDOT information, stakeholder input, interviews with subject matter experts, etc. Key assumptions will be derived from numerous sources, including primary and secondary research. |