News Releases

Date: Thursday, June 1, 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

 

New Installation Date and Media Availability:

• Video and photographs of crews applying SafeLane ™ Surface Overlay on the Looking Glass River Bridge available Thursday, June 8, from 10-11 AM—weather permitting.
• Interview opportunities, same time and date: Bob Persichetti, general manager for SafeLane™; Bill Shreck, MDOT Communications Director.
• See www.cargillsafelane.com for animation and b-roll on how SafeLane ™ works. B-roll available upon request.

Smart Bridge That Can De-ice Itself Coming to Lansing

New Pavement Overlay Produces Safer Roads with Less Maintenance

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

So this spring MDOT is trying something new. The SafeLane ™ Surface Overlay system will be installed on the Looking Glass River Bridge on U.S. Highway 127. This will be the first test site in Michigan for a new technology developed at Michigan Tech University (MTU) to produce safer roads with less maintenance.

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 snow storms 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 less maintenance,” says Bob Persichetti, general manager for SafeLane™ Surface Overlay at Cargill, which licenses and markets the system. “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.”

MDOT chose the Looking Glass River Bridge because at 300' long and three lanes wide the site is a relatively long bridge span giving a large surface area in which to observe the performance of the product. “Also, the southbound bridge at this location has our standard epoxy overlay applied a few years ago, so this location should give us a good comparison of the two different products,” says Tim Croze, MDOT pavement maintenance engineer. The Lansing project marks the 13th installation (4 this season, 9 previously) of SafeLane ™ at sites in seven states.

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. They also improve skid resistance and surface appearance. The Virginia Transportation Research Council’s Michael Sprinkel, who is 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 Dr. 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.” The report notes “superior performance” on the SafeLane test section of the Ironwood Bridge, in South Bend, Indiana with only 50 percent of the chemical used on the control section. A complete copy of the report, which was commissioned by Cargill, is available at www.cargillsafelane.com.

Installation costs for SafeLane ™ average a few dollars more per square foot than standard epoxy overlays. However, transportation departments report using SafeLane ™ selectively for specific problem areas, often with a history of accidents. “Research indicates that SafeLane™ is helping to keep motorists from getting into accidents, which is a benefit not easily quantifiable in dollars and cents,” Persichetti notes. Plus, as total chemical use declines there is less runoff into the local environment.

 

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.