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this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025
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Does this actually work? It seems a massive waste of money, you just need a heavy truck to pass on the road to have a pipe leak and break the whole system
Not to mention the energy cost to keep it over 0° C for all the winter
You wouldn't believe the secondary costs caused by thawing salt. And then there's the primary cost of operating vehicle park to spread a lot of salt each winter.
Although general streets would not be my first choice (you should start with bridges where corrosion is even more of an issue) every example of heated street I saw was just a matter of "yeah, simple math says this makes sense".
PS: And that's obviously not car-specific even. Every newly build bike lane should incorporate this idea. Modern bike and pedestrian bridges doubly so.
PPS: For reference: new bicycle-bridge in Germany... 16 million € to build, of which the added heating is a very small fraction (300k).
When I lived in Grand Rapids in '08 I was told the big bridge across the river was heated. So they probably did start there.
Yes, it works. They do it in Norway... For the sidewalks.
what's the norwegian word for feeling bad for someone else's shame?
I regularly walk through a pedestrian area that has such heating here in Helsinki. Most of the time it works, but when it gets cold enough and there's a lot of new snow, the snow just turns into a wet slush that people walk through until it freezes into a horrible icy mess dotted with deep footprints. It's quite a contrast to the nice and relatively even packed snow around the place at such times. Drainage is important, as is keeping the power level adequately high. Half measures will fail if the conditions get bad.
If they also plow the bulk of the snow off when it's fresh, then it could work nicely.
it can save money over labor and increased road maintenance of snow plows, it also makes it significantly less of a trip hazard because ice patches get removed faster.
I could see this being worth the cost on some especially busy streets that are critical for commerce or for using around emergency services. Maybe outside where the snow plow are too, lol, how else would they plow out?
This would be great right outside firehouses and the like!
Hospitals...
In this case, the people who will benefit most are probably pedestrians trying to access the walking bridges over the Grand River. This is a small part of Lyon street wedged between Monroe Avenue and the Grand River.
where I am (Alaska) this is mostly used around buisness everyone hates and where there are a lot of walkers to prevent lawsuits; as for snowplows and critical roads, just use giant snowblowers and accept the need to repair the road annually.
Well if it works.
Doesn't beed to be above 0° the whole winter, only when there is snow/ice/snirt that needs clearing.