The technology was developed at one of Moscow’s technical universities. As the university’s press service explained, during the construction of a winter road it is required to combine aqueous solutions of reinforcing materials and a dispersed anti-friction phase. As a result, a regular ice structure is formed: buffer layers (soft glue) appear between the crystals, which increases the strength of the matrix. The anti-friction additive helps increase traction, while the high reflection coefficient should slow the melting of the road surface in spring. The researchers do not reveal what exactly the base substance of the additive is; They are going to market the development.
Although winter roads disappear in spring, they are a very important part of the infrastructure of the Far North.
A winter road is a seasonal road whose base is made up of compacted earth, snow and ice. These routes are built in cold regions, in inaccessible areas, where there are many rivers and swamps, so it makes no sense to pave them. Three major regional winter roads open every year in Yamal. The road from Korotchaevo to Krasnoselkup has a length of 133 kilometers. The Labytnangi-Muzhi-Azovy highway passing through the territory of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug extends for 314 kilometers and, beyond the village of Tegi, is served by Ugra contractors. The Aksarka-Salemal-Panaevsk-Yar-Sale route is considered the most difficult: of 168 kilometers, most of it runs through water barriers. Seasonal roads are used by the population of remote villages, fishermen and hunters and forest protection agents. In addition, there are winter fishing roads, developed by subsoil users and used to transport equipment and materials to the fields.
Despite the fact that in winter the roads disappear in spring, they are such an important part of the infrastructure of the Far North that in 2022 specialists of the Department of Transport and Road Construction of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug developed the standard “Design, construction and maintenance of winter roads and ice crossings.” The composition and intensity of traffic, safety requirements, the construction of snow retention ditches, etc. were taken into account. Construction work usually begins in November, when the thermometer steadily drops to minus 10 degrees. First, the tractor rakes the layers, compacts them and then levels them with drags. The sections along the rivers are especially frozen to increase the thickness of the ice. Rotary snow blowers are used to remove snow after a snow storm.
Winter roads open in December and operate until mid-April; Their load capacity is not lower than that of normal roads: they can support vehicles weighing 15 to 30 tons. Before opening the road, a special commission evaluates the quality of the pavement, the regularity of road cleaning and the presence of signs and markers. On winter regional roads there are nine checkpoints – trailers where drivers can warm up and wait for the tow truck or repair technician. The cameras read the license plates of cars entering the road; This allows you to track traffic flow and monitor whether everyone has arrived at the location. An average of 150 cars per day circulate on winter roads, but much depends on the weather: traffic is closed to all types of transport in case of frost below 40 degrees, a snow storm or heavy snowfall. During the thaw, only passenger cars weighing up to 3.5 tons will be allowed to travel on seasonal roads.
Opinion
Anatoly Shuvaev, professor, expert in the field of road construction:
– The service life of a winter road depends on many factors: air temperature and coating material, traffic composition and intensity, load transfer from the wheel to the road, etc. Hardening snow with aqueous chemical solutions is something new. It can be assumed that granular snow (solid water phase) thanks to this turns into a durable monolithic material, then it is necessary to calculate what state of stress-strain the road pavement layer will have, because the dynamic loads of the modern chassis The number of trucks with trailers and dump trucks has increased. Second point: ice is a special material; at -50 it may be more resistant than granite, but at -5 it deforms and cars fail. How did the authors of the development evaluate the rheological properties of the bodies, that is, the dependence of the deformation of the coating on the change in external temperature from minus 55ºC to 0ºC? Let’s wait for the scientific evidence in the press.
Meanwhile
A subsoil user company has patented the first Russian video analysis system, which evaluates the condition of roads in winter online. The vehicles are equipped with cameras and lidars for aerial laser scanning of signs, beacons, markers and road boundaries. Machine learning algorithms analyze the data and compare it with a digital model of the winter road. This allows you to automatically detect any deviations (holes, grooves, integrity violations) and quickly eliminate them. The technology was tested in Yamal and in 2024-2025 it will be implemented in five companies developing fields in Eastern and Western Siberia.
