Clean Roads

CLEAN-ROADS project is a LIFE+ project which addresses the problem of the environmental pollution caused by deicers which are widely used in the winter road maintenance activities within the Province of Trento. More specifically, the project aims to support the current system, which has proved to be reliable and accurate, with a new scalable and energy-efficient road monitoring system, composed by both static monitoring stations and mobile probes. This system will be in the condition not only to collect real-time data about the road conditions, but also to perform short-term forecasts, which actively integrate weather data and bulletins covering the target area.

This information will represent a novel decision-support basis for the local road maintenance service, and hopefully lead to an optimization of the existing procedures and in the proper use of deicers during the winter maintenance operations, which will produce as a consequence positive impacts on the surrounding environment, on the road maintenance costs and on the traffic efficiency, without compromising the actual levels of road safety. An important part of the project is focused on the dissemination of the collected and elaborated information to the local drivers, which will be spread to the public availing of the existing traveler information channels (e.g. the on-line platform "Viaggiare in Trentino", the regional network of variable message signs, etc.). The objective of this task is specifically to inform, educate and empower the local travelers in order to improve the efficiency of their travel patterns during critical winter conditions.

Technical and experimental activities will be significantly enriched by the local road operators, which will be actively involved and trained during the project execution. During this involvement process, it will be possible to examine and discuss with them the operational problems that they encounter during they daily activities, and evaluate and understand the complex dynamics which characterize the behavior of the road surface during the winter season.

The project aims finally to enter in contact with networks and institutions at national, inter-regional and European level, in order to activate a dialectical exchange of best-practices concerning both existing road management policies as well as technological solutions, which are able to efficiently tackle the present and future challenges of this sector.

For more information, please visit the project website: www.clean-roads.eu