Snow and Ice Removal in an Urban Environment

Although important answers regarding the efficient removal of snow and ice reside in the domain of good planning and the behavioral sciences, the primary thesis of this paper is that cities can significantly improve their snow and ice removal operations by improving the routing of salt spreader trucks. A dynamic routing heuristic totally different from the static routing in general use was developed. The value of this heuristic was demonstrated to the satisfaction of city officials using a discrete simulation model of a large midwestern city. In addition, the simulator was used to answer questions of salt pile location and equipment configuration and location. Although applied to only one city, this routing heuristic, together with the simulation approach, is of potential value to all city governments that experience snow and ice emergencies.