Winter service vehicle Totally Explained

Everything about Winter Service Vehicle totally explained

A winter service vehicle (WSV), or snow removal vehicle, is used to clear thoroughfares of ice and snow. Winter service vehicles are usually based on dump truck chassis, with adaptations allowing them to carry specially designed snow removal equipment. Many authorities also use smaller vehicles on sidewalks, footpaths, and cycleways. Road maintenance agencies and contractors in temperate or polar areas often own several winter service vehicles, using them to keep the roads clear of snow and ice and safe for driving during winter. Airports use winter service vehicles to keep both aircraft surfaces, and runways and taxiways free of snow and ice, which, besides endangering aircraft takeoff and landing, can interfere with the aerodynamics of the craft.
The earliest winter service vehicles were snow rollers, designed to maintain a smooth, even road surface for sleds, although horse-drawn snowploughs and gritting vehicles are recorded in use as early as 1862. The increase in motor car traffic and aviation in the early 20th century led to the development and popularisation of large motorised winter service vehicles.

History

Although snow removal dates back to at least the Middle Ages, early attempts merely involved using a shovel or broom to remove snow from walkways and roads. Other common changes include the replacement of the stock tires with rain tires or mud and snow tires and the shortening of the vehicle's wheelbase to improve maneuverability. However, some winter service vehicles, especially those designed for use on footpaths or pedestrianised zones, are built on a far smaller chassis. These vehicles are often multi-purpose, and can be fitted with other equipment such as brushes, lawnmowers or cranes—as these operations are generally unable to run during heavy snowfalls, there's generally little overlap between the different uses, reducing the size of the fleet required by the agency or contractor. Modern winter service vehicles will usually also have a satellite navigation system connected to a weather forecast feed, allowing the driver to choose the best areas to treat and to avoid areas in which rain is likely, which can wash away the grit used—the most advanced can even adapt to changing conditions, ensuring optimal gritter and plough settings. Most run on wheels, often with snow chains or studded tires, Off-road winter service vehicles mounted on caterpillar tracks are known as snowcats. Snowcats are commonly fitted with snowploughs or snow groomers, and are used by ski resorts to smooth and maintain pistes and snowmobile runs, although they can also be used as a replacement for chairlifts. Military winter service vehicles are heavily armoured to allow for their use in combat zones, especially in Arctic and mountain warfare, and often based on combat bulldozers or HMMWVs. Military winter service vehicles have been used by the United Nations, Kosovo Force, and the U.S. Army in Central Europe during the Kosovo War, while during the Cold War, the Royal Marines and Royal Corps of Signals deployed a number of tracked vehicles in Norway to patrol the NATO border with the Soviet Union.
In most countries, winter service vehicles usually have amber light bars, which are activated to indicate that the vehicle is operating below the local speed limit or otherwise poses a danger to other traffic, either by straddling lanes Many agencies also paint their vehicles in high-contrast orange or yellow to allow the vehicles to been seen more clearly in whiteout conditions.

Operation

Winter service vehicles are operated by both government agencies and by private subcontractors. Winter service vehicles in the United Kingdom are the only road-going vehicles entitled to use red diesel. Though the vehicles still use public highways, they're used to keep the road network operational, and forcing them to pay extra tax to do so would discourage private contractors from assisting with snow removal on public roads. Winter service vehicle drivers in the United States must hold a Class A or Class B commercial driver's license. Although some agencies in some areas, such as the U.S. state of Minnesota, allow winter service vehicle drivers to operate without any extra training, most provide supplemental lessons to drivers to teach them the most effective and safe methods of snow removal. Many require that trainee drivers ride-along with more experienced drivers, and some even operate specially designed driving simulators, which can safely replicate dangerous winter driving conditions. Winter service vehicle drivers usually work part time, before and during inclement weather only, with drivers working a 12 to 16 hour shift. The hazardous roads through mountain passes pose additional problems for the large winter service vehicles. The heavy metal frame and bulky grit makes hill climbing demanding for the vehicle, so vehicles have extremely high torque transmission systems to provide enough power to make the climb. These prevent ice from forming on the body of the aircraft while on the ground. Ice makes the surface of the wings rougher, reducing the amount of lift they provide while increasing drag. The ice also increases the weight of the aircraft and can affect its balance.
Aircraft de-icing vehicles usually consist of a large tanker truck, containing the concentrated de-icing fluid, with a water feed to dilute the fluid according to the ambient temperature. The vehicle also normally has a cherry picker crane, allowing the operator to spray the entire aircraft in as little time as possible; an entire Boeing 737 can be treated in under 10 minutes by a single de-icing vehicle. Airport runways are also de-iced by sprayers fitted with long spraying arms. These arms are wide enough to cross the entire runway, and allow de-icing of the entire airstrip to take place in a single pass, reducing the length of time that the runway is unavailable.

Gritter/Sander

A gritter, also known as a sander, salt spreader or salt truck, The grit is sometimes mixed with molasses to help adhesion to the road surface. However, the sweet molasses often attracts livestock, who lick the road. The grit is sometimes heated as it's passed out of the nozzle; this helps melt the ice and improves the solubility of the salt. Quieter rural roads may be considered too minor to grit, so grit bins are often provided, containing a mixture of sand and salt for drivers and pedestrians to shovel onto the road themselves.
Gritters are among the winter service vehicles also used in airports, to keep runways free of ice. However, the salt normally used to clear roads can damage the airframe of aircraft and interferes with the sensitive navigation equipment. As a result, airport gritters spread less dangerous potassium acetate onto the runways instead, as potassium acetate doesn't corrode the aircraft or the airside equipment. so all salt used in gritting comes from salt mines, a non-renewable source. Additionally, high concentrations of salt in soil kill plants, so it's in the interest of operators to limit gritting to an absolute minimum. As a result, road maintenance agencies have advanced networks of ice prediction stations, to prevent unnecessary gritting which not only wastes salt, but can damage the environment and disrupt traffic. The salt dropped is eventually washed away and lost, so it can't be reused or collected after gritting runs, although the insoluble sand can be collected and recycled by street sweeping vehicles and mixed with new salt crystals to be reused in later batches of grit. As a result, operators must regularly purchase large quantities of rock salt, depleting a finite resource and damaging the environment through dangerous and polluting salt mining.
In some areas of the world, including Berlin, dropping salt is prohibited altogether, except on the highest-risk roads; plain sand, without any melting agents, is spread instead. Although this protects the environment, it's more labour-intensive, as more gritting runs are needed; and as the sand is insoluble, it tends to accumulate at the sides of the road, making it more difficult for buses to pull in at bus stops. Other areas use alternative chemicals which are less harmful to the environment and cause less corrosion damage to metallic structures. The U.S. state of Oregon uses magnesium chloride, a relatively cheap chemical similar in molecular structure to sodium chloride, but less reactive, while New Zealand uses calcium magnesium acetate, which avoids the environmentally harmful chloride ion altogether. Urea is sometimes used to grit suspension bridges, as it doesn't react with iron or steel at all, but urea is less effective than salt, and can cost up to 7 times weight-for-weight. Most grit is mixed with hydrous sodium ferrocyanide which, while harmless in its natural form, can undergo photodissociation in strong sunlight to produce the extremely toxic chemical hydrogen cyanide. Although sunlight is generally not intense enough to cause this in polar and temperate regions, salt deposits must kept as far as possible from waterways to avert the possibility of cyanide-tainted run-off entering fisheries or farms. Gritting vehicles are also dangerous to overtake; as grit is scattered across the entire roadway, loose pieces can damage the paintwork and windows of passing cars. Loose salt doesn't provide sufficient traction for motorcycles, which can lead to skiding, especially around corners.

Snow blower

Snow blowers, also known as rotating snowploughs or snow cutters, can be used in place of snowploughs on winter service vehicles. A snow blower consists of a rapidly spinning blade which cuts through the snow, forcing it out of a funnel attached to the top of the blower. Snow blowers typically clear much faster than ploughs, with some clearing in excess of 5000 tonnes of snow per hour, and can cut through far deeper snow drifts than a snowplough can. In addition, snow blowers can remove snow from the roadway completely, rather than piling it at the side of the road, making passage easier for other road users and preventing the windrow from blocking driveways.

Snow groomer

A snow groomer is a machine designed to smooth and compact the snow, rather than removing it altogether. Early snow groomers were used by residents of rural areas to compress the snow close to their homes, and consisted of a heavy roller hauled by oxen which compacted the snow to make a smooth surface for sledging.
The development of more advanced electronic systems in the 1980s allowed manufacturers to produce snow groomers which could work on and replicate a much wider range of terrains, with the most modern even able to produce half-pipes and ramps for snowboarding. However, snow groomers have a detrimental effect on the environment within the resort. Grooming removes nutrients and minerals from the soil underneath the snow and the regular pressure from the grooming vehicle increases the infiltration rate of the soil while decreasing the field capacity. This increases the rate at which water can soak through the soil, making it more prone to erosion.

Snow melter

A snow melting vehicle works by scooping snow into a melting pit located in a large tank at the rear of the vehicle. Around the melting pit is a smaller tank full of boiling water, heated by a powerful burner. The gases from the burner are bubbled through the water, causing some of the water to spill over into the melting pit, melting the snow instantly. The meltwater is discharged into the storm drains.
As they've to carry the large water tank and fuel for the burner, snow melting machines tend to be much larger and heavier than most winter service vehicles, at around 18 metres (59 ft), with the largest being hauled by semi-trailer tractor units. In addition, the complicated melting process means that snow melting vehicles have a much lower capacity than the equivalent plough or blower vehicle; the largest snow melter can remove 500 tonnes of snow per hour, compared to the 5000 tonnes per hour capacity of any large snow blower.

Snowplough

Many winter service vehicles can be fitted with snowploughs, to clear roads which are blocked by deep snow. In most cases, the ploughs are mounted on hydraulically-actuated arms, allowing them to be raised, lowered, and angled to better move snow. Most winter service vehicles include either permanently fixed ploughs or plough frames: 75% of the UK's Highways Agency vehicles include a plough frame to which a blade can be attached. skid loaders, and rubbish trucks. Front-end loaders can also be used to plough snow. Either a snowplough attachment can be mounted on the loader's arm in place of the bucket, or the bucket or snowbasket can be used to load snow into the rear compartment of a snowplough or dump truck, which then hauls it away. Snowploughs are dangerous to overtake; often, the oncoming lane may not be completely free of snow. In addition, the plough blade causes considerable spray of snow on both sides, which can obscure the vision of other road users. as the flexible brushes follow the terrain better than the rigid blades of snowploughs and snow blowers. These brushes also allow the vehicle to be used on the tactile tiles found at traffic lights and tram stops, without damaging the delicate surface. Unlike other winter service vehicles, snow sweepers don't compress the snow, leaving a rough, high friction, surface behind them. This makes snow sweepers the most efficient method of snow removal for snow depths below 10 centimetres (4 in). Snow deeper than this however can clog the brushes, and most snow sweepers can't be used to clear snow deeper than 15 centimetres (6 in). The vehicle can relay the surface friction data back to the control centre, allowing gritting and clearing to be planned so that the vehicles are deployed most efficiently. Surface friction testers often include a water spraying system, to simulate the effects of rain on the road surface before the rain occurs.Further Information

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