News Releases

Date: Monday, July 10, 2006

Contacts:

Contact:	Company:	Phone:	Email:
Bill Brady	Cargill	952-742-6608	bill_brady@cargill.com
Jackie Renner	RCC	612-859-2626	rennercomm@aol.com

 

Smart Bridge That Can De-ice Itself Coming to Minnesota

Congressman Jim Oberstar to Tour Site of First Installation

MINNEAPOLIS –Motorists in Minnesota generally don’t worry about snow and ice in July. But for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), safety during dangerous winter storms is a year-long headache.

is a year-long headache. So this summer MnDOT is trying something new. The SafeLane ™ Surface Overlay system will be installed this month on the Highway 169 Mitchell Bridge near Hibbing. Congressman Jim Oberstar, Ranking Member of the U.S. House of Representative’s Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, will join Cargill executives and MnDOT officials at the site to kick-off the installation at 9:00 am, Monday, July 17. This will be the first test site in the state for a new technology--licensed and marketed by Minnesota-based Cargill--designed to produce safer roads with better mobility.

WHAT:	Media availability during installation of first Minnesota test site for new technology to make roads and bridges safer.
WHEN:	Monday, July 17, 2006 9:00 am-10:15 am
WHO:	Congressman Jim Oberstar Scott Portnoy, Corporate Vice President, Cargill Bob Persichetti, General Manager, Cargill SafeLane ™ Duane Hill, Assistant District Engineer for Operations, MnDOT
WHERE:	Highway 169 Mitchell Bridge, Hibbing, Minnesota (The project location is on T.H. 169 north of Hibbing near the curve, 1-1/2 miles north of the intersection of T.H. 169 and T.H. 73 in Hibbing. This is the location where the railroad tracks cross under T.H. 169. The road is a four-lane divided highway in this location. The project is in the southbound lanes. )

Here’s how it works: SafeLane ™ is made up of a patented combination of epoxy and aggregate rock. Liquid anti-icing chemicals are applied to the overlay before ice or snowstorms hit. The material acts like a rigid sponge, storing the chemicals inside, and then automatically releasing them as conditions develop for the formation of ice or snow. SafeLane ™ keeps releasing the anti-icing chemicals over multiple events, greatly reducing the need to send out highway maintenance crews in the midst of a storm.

“For motorists SafeLane ™ means safer roads with better mobility,” says Bob Persichetti, general manager for SafeLane™ Surface Overlay. “An analysis of SafeLane’s performance during the 2005-2006 winter season found no weather-related accidents at all nine test sites studied. In many cases, this contrasted with multiple accidents on nearby untreated stretches of road or bridge deck. And, almost all of those treated sites had a history of winter weather accidents.”

“A leading cause of winter driving accidents in Minnesota is freezing surfaces on bridges and roadways,’ said Oberstar. “Preventing the formation of ice and frost before it has a chance to create dangerous driving conditions would be a big step forward in improving travelers’ safety. During my service in Congress, I have championed improving safety on our highways and bridges, and I am very pleased that Hibbing will be the test site for this new product.”

“The Mitchell Bridge frequently experiences icing conditions and has a history of weather-related crashes,” noted Duane Hill, MnDOT assistant district engineer for operations. There were nine vehicle crashes on the bridge between Jan. 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2004, the latest data available. Seven of the crashes involved a pavement surface that was listed as snow, slush or ice-packed snow. “These are the crashes we are trying to eliminate,” adds Hill. “This test will determine how well SafeLane overlay increases skid resistance and reduces crash rates.”

Dr. John Evans, Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota Duluth, will evaluate SafeLane’s performance at the Hibbing site as part of the research effort at the Northland Advanced Transportation Systems Research Laboratory.

Transportation departments have been using epoxy overlays for three decades to extend the life of bridges by minimizing water seepage and intrusion of corrosive agents like chlorides. The Virginia Transportation Research Council’s Michael Sprinkel, a national expert in the design, construction and evaluation of epoxy overlays, notes that SafeLane™ provides all the benefits of standard epoxy overlays. “However,” Sprinkel adds, “the specific aggregate-chemical combination in SafeLane™ has the additional benefit of minimizing snow and ice-related crashes as well.”

The analysis of SafeLane’s performance this past winter season was conducted by Wilfred Nixon, a leading snow and ice control authority who is president of Asset Insight Technologies and professor of engineering at the University of Iowa. The report concludes, “On the basis of the observations made during the 2005-06 winter, SafeLane™ overlay provides benefits in both safety and mobility under winter storm conditions, and those benefits may be attained with less chemical than would be needed for highway segments without the overlay.” A complete copy of the report, which was commissioned by Cargill, is available at www.cargillsafelane.com.

The Hibbing project marks the 15th installation (6 this season, 9 previously) of SafeLane ™ at sites in nine states. Safelane™ was invented after ten years of research at Michigan Tech University (MTU).

 

 

About Cargill

Cargill is an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services. With 149,000 employees in 63 countries, the company is committed to using its knowledge and experience to collaborate with customers to help them succeed. For more information, visit www.cargill.com.