Winter Deicing and Pavement Condition

Winter conditions damage pavements through freeze-thaw cycles, deicing chemicals, and mechanical damage from snow removal equipment. Proper structural design helps the pavement layers resist frost action, and good construction keeps unwanted material out of the structure, but the methods used to clear snow and ice can themselves affect long-term pavement condition.

Deicing Chemicals

Common deicers are:

• Sodium chloride (rock salt), the most widely used because it is cheap and readily available.
• Calcium chloride, which releases heat as it dissolves.
• Magnesium chloride, which is more effective than sodium chloride at lower temperatures.
• Acetates such as calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) and potassium acetate, often used on airfields, where chlorides are excluded to prevent damage to aircraft (Pan, 2008¹).

Effects on Pavements

• Concrete surface damage. In PCC pavements, deicers combined with freeze-thaw action can cause scaling and spalling. Concrete resists this when it has sufficient entrained air and has been properly cured; supplementary cementitious materials that reduce permeability also help.
• Magnesium-based deicers. Magnesium chloride and CMA are a particular concern for concrete because magnesium reacts with the cement paste, forming brucite and a magnesium silicate hydrate that has no cementing value. In laboratory wet-dry and freeze-thaw tests, magnesium-bearing deicers caused severe paste deterioration, while sodium chloride was the least harmful of the deicers tested (Lee et al., 2000²). Magnesium chloride can also reduce concrete strength even when it carries a corrosion inhibitor (Shi et al., 2010³), so these deicers should be used in low concentrations.
• Asphalt pavements. Deicers, particularly acetates, can contribute to stripping by weakening the bond between binder and aggregate; in laboratory tests, stripping and emulsification of the binder increased with acetate concentration (Pan, 2008¹).
• Corrosion. Chloride deicers are corrosive to reinforcing steel and to steel dowel bars at PCC joints, as well as to vehicles, and runoff carries them into the environment. Corrosion inhibitors can be added to deicer products (Shi et al., 2010³).

In general, deicers cause less pavement damage when the amount and concentration applied are the minimum needed to be effective.

Sand

Sand is spread alone or with deicers to give traction on packed snow. It does not attack pavement materials chemically, but it does not wash away as deicers do and can lodge where it causes damage. In PCC pavements, sand collects in joints that are unsealed or whose sealant has gaps, which can debond the sealant and contribute to joint faulting. On open-graded and permeable asphalt pavements, sand clogs the voids that let water drain through the surface; because these pavements drain meltwater quickly anyway, sanding should be avoided on them.

Summary

Deicers and sand keep winter roads open and safe, but each can shorten pavement life. Choosing the treatment to suit the pavement (avoiding magnesium-based deicers on concrete and sand on open-graded and permeable surfaces) and applying only the amount needed keeps winter maintenance from undoing pavement preservation.

@misc{pavint-winter-deicing-and-pavement-condition,
  author = {{Pavement Interactive}},
  title = {Winter Deicing and Pavement Condition},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {HeadLight},
  howpublished = {\url{https://pavementinteractive.org/reference-desk/maintenance-and-rehabilitation/maintenance/winter-deicing-and-pavement-condition/}},
  note = {Accessed [date]}
}