Sustainable ecological development reducing negative effects of road maintenance salts

Abstract

To ensure traffic safety in winter, large amounts of technical salts (chlorides) are applied on roads. De-icing salts directly or indirectly contaminate the road environment and have a negative effect on the components of road environment. The analysis of the situation raises a question: how to ensure traffic safety in wintertime applying salts and achieve sustainable development. The article presents the investigations of chloride concentrations on the roadsides of a highway. In 5 recent years, complex environmental laboratory investigations and investigations under natural conditions of the effect of salts on the components of the road environment have been carried out proving their toxic effect. Consequently, to reduce a negative effect of salts on the road environment, measures of sustainable ecological development have to be taken. To achieve a balanced use of salts, the proposal is to apply alternative materials (formiates, molasses-based material). The introduction of biotechnical measures (an infiltration-grassy ditch, biological and chemical indication on roadsides) is expedient to eliminate the consequences but not the reasons of salt use.