The Development of a Novel Blower Snow Fence
There are two types of snowstorm-induced traffic hindrances on roads: visibility hindrance, which causes collision accidents, and snowdrifts, which cause vehicle stranding. Blowing-snow control measures, therefore, are extremely important in winter road management. Snow fences are frequently used as blowing-snow control measures. In the United States, snow fence installation has been promoted in many states, including Wyoming. Based on knowledge of snow fence uses in the U.S., the installation of types of snow fences used in the U.S. was promoted in Japan, too. However, it gradually became difficult to lease land, such as that of upland and paddy fields, for fence installation, because land for fence installation is scarce in Japan. As a result of land procurement difficulties, the "blower snow fence", which can be installed at the immediate roadside, was developed. This fence has become widely used in Japan. However, the blower snow fence has a problem that needs to be solved. When the incident wind is oblique to the fence or when the clearance along the bottom of the fence is blocked with accumulated snow, the fence loses its effectiveness. In this study, with the aim of improving this problematic characteristic of the conventional blower snow fence, a new blower snow fence that can be installed at the immediate roadside similar to conventional blower fences was experimentally created. Onsite investigation on the snow control effectiveness of the new fence clarified that the new fence had greater effectiveness than conventional blower fences.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHD65 Standing Committee on Winter Maintenance.
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001 -
Authors:
- Watanabe, Takashi
- Matsuzawa, Masaru
- Konaka, Takanori
- Kaneko, Manabu
- Tanitsu, Takanori
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
- Date: 2016
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References;
- Pagination: 11p
- Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Highways; Snow and ice control; Snow fences; Wind resistant design; Winter maintenance
- Geographic Terms: Japan
- Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01595683
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 16-2191
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Apr 4 2016 10:16AM