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  • Standard Operating Procedures for the Design, Maintenance, and Operation of Arctic and Subarctic Winter Roads

    Abstract: Operations in cold regions require vehicular maneuvering across snowpacks or frozen surfaces. Winter roads and their route determination, construction, and monitoring are widely studied. This report analyzes historical and current literature on winter road construction and operations, reviews risk assessment techniques, examines the impact of uncertain weather on road reliability, and provides a standard operating procedure for design, maintenance, and use. Winter roads, snow roads, ice roads, and ice bridges enable seasonal access in Arctic and Subarctic regions. They allow cross-country maneuverability over terrain like wetlands and bogs, which are impassable in summer. These roads are critical for training, logistics, and construction in areas without all-season access. When combined with ice bridges they can provide near-unlimited travel. Effectiveness depends on proper planning, construction, and monitoring. Snow roads require controlled compaction for strength, while ice roads require sufficient ice thickness to support loads. Both rely on tools like visual inspections, ground-penetrating radar, and unmanned aerial systems to ensure safety. With extreme seasonal variability, adaptive strategies are essential. Shortened seasons and unpredictable freeze–thaw cycles demand modern technologies, predictive weather modeling, and improved reinforcement. This report integrates historical knowledge with engineering advancements to improve winter road durability, reduce risks, and support cold-region operations.
  • Cellulose Nanofibers Impart Melt Resistance to Ice Through Optical and Thermal Mechanisms

    Abstract: Ice is ubiquitous in cold regions with historical significance as a key structural material. Contemporary efforts to leverage ice for the construction of large structures have incorporated cellulose-based reinforcing materials to increase strength. While an increased resistance to melting has been observed, it has not been investigated. Herein, we provide evidence that cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), as a heterogeneous component to synthetic ices, increase melt resistance through optical and thermal mechanisms. Specifically, we investigated the effect of 0.1−1.0 wt % CNFs on the reflectance, thermal conductivity, and melt rate of ice. The presence of CNFs increased reflectance of ice from 20 to 70% at 640 nm. Thermophysical measurements revealed that CNFs both slow melting and facilitate freezing and do not statistically affect the specific heat capacity of ice. Measurements with light flash analysis revealed that CNFs reduce thermal conductivity up to 10%. Overall CNFs reduced the melt rate of ice by 10× with only 1.0 wt % CNF. These results demonstrate that insoluble CNFs impart melt resistance to ice by both optical and thermal mechanisms, results that provide an interesting combination of controls for ice stability and formation to optimize ice material properties for high performance applications in cold regions.
  • Cochiti Lake temporarily closed due to unsafe ice conditions

    U.S. Army Corps of Engineers staff at Cochiti Lake announced Jan. 27, 2025, that the lake is temporarily closed until further notice due to unsafe ice conditions.
  • DARPA ‘ICE’ program kicks off at ERDC-CRREL

    Making ice work “for” and not “against” the U.S. military is the mission behind Ice Control for cold Environments (ICE), a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program that recently kicked off at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire.
  • ERDC’s Asenath-Smith assists DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office program team

    Dr. Emily Asenath-Smith knows a lot about the science of ice, and as a research materials engineer with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), she is uniquely suited to take on a wide range of research challenges with ice.
  • USACE warns of dangerous ice conditions at Coralville Lake

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District, is warning the public to stay off the ice at Coralville Lake. Recent extreme cold has added ice to the surface of the water while decreasing inflows have caused unstable conditions.
  • Corps temporarily closes Kellettville recreation area campgrounds at Tionesta Lake

    Due to ice chunks from a recent high-water event along Tionesta Creek, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District is temporarily closing the Kellettville recreation area at Tionesta Lake.
  • Autonomous GPR Surveys using the Polar Rover Yeti

    Abstract: The National Science Foundation operates stations on the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland to investigate Earth’s climate history, life in extreme environments, and the evolution of the cosmos. Understandably, logistics costs predominate budgets due to the remote locations and harsh environments involved. Currently, manual ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys must preceed vehicle travel across polar ice sheets to detect subsurface crevasses or other voids. This exposes the crew to the risks of undetected hazards. We have developed an autonomous rover, Yeti, specifically to conduct GPR surveys across polar ice sheets. It is a simple four-wheel-drive, battery-powered vehicle that executes autonomous surveys via GPS waypoint following. We describe here three recent Yeti deployments, two in Antarctica and one in Greenland. Our key objective was to demonstrate the operational value of a rover to locate subsurface hazards. Yeti operated reliably at −30 ◦C, and it has good oversnow mobility and adequate GPS accuracy for waypoint-following and hazard georeferencing. It has acquired data on hundreds of crevasse encounters to improve our understanding of heavily crevassed traverse routes and to develop automated crevasse-detection algorithms. Importantly, it helped to locate a previously undetected buried building at the South Pole. Yeti can improve safety by decoupling survey personnel from the consequences of undetected hazards. It also enables higher-quality systematic surveys to improve hazard-detection probabilities, increase assessment confidence, and build datasets to understand the evolution of these regions. Yeti has demonstrated that autonomous vehicles have great potential to improve the safety and efficiency of polar logistics.
  • Use of a Portable Friction Tester on Snow and Ice Pavement

    Abstract: The objective of this project was to determine if portable friction testers could be used for friction measurements on compacted snow and ice surfaces. First, the effect of cold temperatures on the operation, consistency, and accuracy of commercially available portable pavement friction measuring tools was evaluated. Tests entailed a series of experiments in a controlled cold room environment. Two portable fixed slip continuous measurement devices and one deceleration spot measurement device were evaluated. The controlled temperature testing determined how ambient temperature and duration of exposure can affect results, but that with care, the devices could be operated in conditions as cold as ˗25°C. This was followed by using one of the devices on outdoor testing on snow, ice, and asphalt surfaces and compared the portable tester to the well-known SAAB vehicle runway friction tester. Results showed good agreement between the portable tester and the SAAB Friction tester, providing validation for the operational use of a portable tester on frozen surfaces.
  • Pittsburgh District collaborates, remains vigilant against ice on the rivers

    When the rivers around Pittsburgh begin to freeze, a committee of experts assembles to respond.