Acknowledgments

Support for the project described herein was provided through the Mountain Plains Consortium as part of the University Transportation Centers Program (UTCP). The MPC member universities include North Dakota State University (lead institution), Colorado State University (CSU), University of Wyoming and Utah State University. The UTCP is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Experimental tests were conducted using specialized equipment in the Structural Engineering Laboratory at the Engineering Research Center on the CSU campus. The donated use of that equipment is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclaimer

The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are solely responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the information presented herein. No researchers from other MPC member institutions participated in the work. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation, University Transportation Center Program, in the interest of the information exchange. The U.S.Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof.

Executive Summary

This report is an interim report for the first phase of an ongoing project entitled "Effectiveness and Environmental Impact of Road Dust Suppressants" on the cooperative research of Colorado State University and the Larimer County Department of Roads and Bridges. The research was initiated in the summer of 1992 and will be completed by June 1994. The original project was extended due to the inability to collect dependable quantitative water quality and dust data in the first several months of the project.

Although preliminary in nature the research results indicate that, 1) road suppressants have an impact on the water quality concentrations of runoff from the treated road surfaces, 2) road dust production increases linearly with vehicle speed, 3) the lignin based suppressants appeared to perform better than the calcium chloride and magnesium chloride based suppressants, and 4) the measuring device, the Colorado State University Dustometer, developed in this research is a precise research tool which can be used in future dust studies, out performing easily the stationary bucket method for collecting dust samples.