Loose the Shovel

Even if you don't melt all of the snow, melting a thin layer and breaking the ice-pavement bond goes a long way to ease snow removal. (At least that's my experience over the last few days.)

I need to proof read this stuff

How about charging the batteries in electric cars and melting the snow? Is it in the future??....what could it cost, a few zillion dollars ...hey they had electric cable cars for years....then again fuel cell cars could probably produce enough heat to melt the snow and ice with heavy traffic...

"The power required to thermally de-ice the Roca Spur Bridge during a three-day storm typically costs about $250," the infrastructure to get the power to the bridge cost $450,000.00.

It will pay for itself with the first wrongful death lawsuit...that didn't happen....

But if the bridge has street lighting and other signage then the cabling is all in place.

Granted they haven't said what power and voltage levels are needed but at $250 I am not expecting an answer in MWh.

But its a fair point that the infrastructure is often over looked deliberately or not. I once did a study on using CO2 injection in the North sea for Enhanced Oil Recovery that assumed magically the CO2 supply was available and even then it was a bad idea (the CO2 cycled through the reservoir too quickly)

This seems to imply this is unique. (???) Is it the concrete that makes it unique?

There is a bridge on a corner in the vicinity of the ARG refinery (former Kendall refinery) on Rt. 219 in Bradford, Pa, that has temperature sensors mounted on poles and a built in electrical grid that is heated when the temperature drops too low. It has been there for a few years now. I guess the difference is this application has a grid, while the article has conductive concrete. It is a very good idea to de-ice bridges, especially ones on a corner near tanks of petroleum. Launch a semi off that sometime, and we'd have one heck of an environmental disaster.

a lot of my posts are about ideas or concepts that I find thought provoking. I personally don't find conductive concrete more useful than existing hydronics. as a widespread solution I never expect this guys idea to catch on but in certain smaller applications It could potentially find a home. I just found the idea interesting