Analysis of the effectiveness of control measures to mitigate road dust emissions in a regional network

The effectiveness of control measures to reduce road dust emissions is analyzed using a year’s data of road dust emissions collected with a mobile sampling platform and a survey of road maintenance practices in the Lake Tahoe Basin of Nevada and California US. Attributes such as sweeping practices, anti-icing, shoulder improvement, pavement condition, trackout, and abrasive material from road segments were analyzed with a feature subset selection algorithm. Street sweeping was found to be an effective means of controlling dust emissions from roads. Road dust from dirty tertiary roads served as a continuous source of suspendable material for adjacent high-speed roads in the winter time. To be most effective, emission control strategies require that not only primary roads, but all roads be swept after snow storms to recover applied abrasive material.

► A mobile platform sampled 1 year road dust emissions from roads in the Tahoe basin.
► Maintenance practices for 22 organizations of Nevada and California were surveyed.
► Dirty tertiary roads served as a continuous source of suspendable material.
► All roads should be swept after snow storms to recover the abrasive material.
► Street sweeping is most cost-effective means of controlling road dust emissions.