Overview
This study was requested by AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) and specifically by the Standing Committee on Highways (SCOH) on behalf of Subcommittee on Maintenance. The members of the task group that guided this study are listed in the Acknowledgements. The study took as a starting point the various research that has been conducted in the field of winter maintenance, together with various research needs statements developed by certain pooled fund groups (e.g., Clear Roads, Aurora, and the Peer Exchange meetings). Appendix B includes a bibliography of reports and other technical documents that helped to inform the discussions in the workshop. The objective of the study was to identify the grand challenges which must be met to allow winter maintenance operations to successfully adapt to the changing constraints that these operations face. The order in which the research areas within the grand challenges should be addressed has not been considered in great detail, primarily because such ordering will depend on the availability of research funds going forward. Some research areas must obviously be addressed before others, simply because those other areas build upon the work that will be done.