Snow and Ice Control of Parking Lots, Platforms and Sidewalks
Research project
WRAP UP BY DR. TAIMUR USMAN
Editor’s note: The SICOPS research project, Snow and Ice Control of Parking Lots, Platforms and Sidewalks, filled a knowledge gap for contractors charged with providing safety in these important environments. Landscape Trades published SICOPS research findings in the July-August 2013, August 2016 and August 2017 issues. The project concluded in 2018, with final results presented is this issue. THE PROJECT, Snow and Ice Control of Parking Lots, Platforms and Sidewalks (SICOPS), was motivated by the need to develop guidelines and standards for parking lot winter maintenance providers. Over 5,000 tests were conducted during the first phase of the project under semicontrolled conditions, which resulted in a model with bare pavement recovery time as a function of salt application rate, pavement temperature and snow density.
12 | FEBRUARY 2020 | LANDSCAPE TRADES
Since the model was developed under semi-controlled conditions, SICOPS phase II was launched to validate the model under normal field working conditions. Salt application data for parking lots from a variety of functional classes were obtained under a wide range of weather conditions. A total of 351 site events were covered and used for model validation; sites were located in Kitchener/ Waterloo, Ont., Buffalo, N.Y., Milton, Mass., Dubuque, Ia. and Onondaga County, N.Y. Locations for testing were changed from year to year to ensure model performance when applied to other locations, to account for different maintenance practices specific to different winter maintenance contractors and to cover a wide variety of weather conditions. In the season 2015/16, data were collected manually, whereas for the other seasons, the process was automated using mobile apps and data loggers, the support functions for which
