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Black Ice
- Thread starter Doc Lynam
- Start date
HalifaxSeagull
Active member
- Aug 24, 2010
- 772
I've just driven home (albeit about 250 miles away!) the roads are awful slush from snow has frozen and ice has formed on the M62. Take it easy out there!
TomandJerry
Well-known member
- Oct 1, 2013
- 11,450
Yup. Drove at 10:30pm tonight and again at 7am, looking forward to it!
AlbionPics&SouthCoastTwit
New member
One way that motorway maintenance workers dealt with black ice that wasn't so intelligent:
The I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was well known for its black ice before it collapsed in 2007 into the Mississippi River. It had caused several pileups during its 40 year life. On December 19, 1985, the temperature reached −34 °C (−29 °F). Cars crossing the bridge experienced black ice and there was a massive pile up of crashed vehicles on the bridge on the northbound side. In February and in December 1996, the bridge was identified as the single most treacherous cold-weather spot in the local freeway system, because of the almost frictionless thin layer of black ice that regularly formed when temperatures dropped below freezing. The bridge's proximity to Saint Anthony Falls contributed significantly to the icing problem and the site was noted for frequent spinouts and collisions.
By January 1999, Mn/DOT began testing magnesium chloride solutions and a mixture of magnesium chloride and a corn-processing byproduct to see whether either would reduce the black ice that appeared on the bridge during the winter months. In October 1999, the state embedded temperature-activated nozzles in the bridge deck to spray the bridge with potassium acetate solution to keep the area free of winter black ice. The system came into operation in 2000.
While the automated de-icing system prevented further major multi-vehicle collisions, it may have contributed to the collapse of the I-35W bridge, due to accelerated corrosion of the structure.
The I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was well known for its black ice before it collapsed in 2007 into the Mississippi River. It had caused several pileups during its 40 year life. On December 19, 1985, the temperature reached −34 °C (−29 °F). Cars crossing the bridge experienced black ice and there was a massive pile up of crashed vehicles on the bridge on the northbound side. In February and in December 1996, the bridge was identified as the single most treacherous cold-weather spot in the local freeway system, because of the almost frictionless thin layer of black ice that regularly formed when temperatures dropped below freezing. The bridge's proximity to Saint Anthony Falls contributed significantly to the icing problem and the site was noted for frequent spinouts and collisions.
By January 1999, Mn/DOT began testing magnesium chloride solutions and a mixture of magnesium chloride and a corn-processing byproduct to see whether either would reduce the black ice that appeared on the bridge during the winter months. In October 1999, the state embedded temperature-activated nozzles in the bridge deck to spray the bridge with potassium acetate solution to keep the area free of winter black ice. The system came into operation in 2000.
While the automated de-icing system prevented further major multi-vehicle collisions, it may have contributed to the collapse of the I-35W bridge, due to accelerated corrosion of the structure.
