UMaine's Winter Road Maintenance Report

Keeping our roadways clear during the winter is complex work.

For the past year, a team at the University of Maine has been researching whether our state can do better at that.

They've been looking into economic, environmental and safety issues related to clearing Maine's winter roads, and they have a few recommendations.

Professor Jonathan Rubin at UMaine says their new report determined our state and municipalities are doing an excellent job. But, they recommend looking for more cost savings, estimating winter snow and ice control costs Maine 98 million dollars a year.

"Seventy percent of that 98 million is spent at the town level. So I think one of the things towns need to ask themselves is, do I need the levels of service that I'm providing? And the answer may be yes, but maybe it's not," Rubin says.

Brian Burne, a DOT highway maintenance engineer, says the information in the report is helpful for future planning.

"It was nice to hear that people thought we did a nice job taking care of the roads, but in some cases, they said maybe we were doing too good a job taking care of the roads," Burne says. "So that was kind of surprising. Maybe they want us to back off on the level of service. And if that's something we can get some consensus on, that would be great."

The report also focused on environmental practices, recommending a continued effort to reduce salt use.

"We know that salt levels in groundwater are rising. It's not an immediate problem, but in the timespan of decades, it is a problem," Rubin says.

Another finding-- of the chloride-based chemicals used to keep roads clear, none was more corrosive than another.

"State and municipal governments should use as little as possible, but they should be free to choose which of those de-icing chemicals they want," Rubin says.

The DOT says they hope to keep the public involved, trying to stay as efficient as possible.

"If we can get more information out there so that people can better understand the types of things we're trying to balance," Burne says, "it's certainly going to be helpful."

You can read the full report here.