NEW CASTLE, PA. Anti-ice system catches on
The company wants to make U.S. highways safer with its systems.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- For motorists who suffer from winter driving phobia, Boschung America in New Castle has a panacea -- a road treatment system that prevents icy roads.
It's nothing new for European drivers.
Automated anti-ice systems have become commonplace on Swiss mountain roads, French airport runways and German bridges. The Boschung Group, the Pennsylvania company's Swiss-based sister corporation, has been designing and installing the systems in Europe for more than 20 years.
Now the owners of Boschung America are determined to make the highway hazard prevention systems just as common on North American highways.
Justin L. Bruce, a vice president, said Pennsylvania has been the most receptive to the technology so far, with eight systems operating and a ninth now being installed.
Boschung has installed one system each in the states of Minnesota, Nebraska, Utah and California, two in Kansas and three in Ontario, Canada. State highway officials in Ohio and New York are considering the system for some locations.
Preventive measure
Safety is the product's strongest selling point, Bruce said. Cost is its biggest drawback.
The company's patented Fixed Automated Spray Technology is preventive, not reactive, so it prevents the formation of ice instead of treating ice when it forms.
In Ottawa, Canada, the FAST system was installed on a high-speed turnoff where 14 serious traffic accidents had been recorded in a year. After the installation, Bruce said, the number of accidents dropped to zero.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota highway officials reported a 70 percent reduction in accidents related to ice or water on a bridge over the Mississippi River where black ice had been a significant problem.
But the systems aren't cheap. Bruce said the average bridge installation costs between $400,000 and $500,000.
In Erie, Pa., where a FAST system is being installed on the 1,106-foot Winter Green Gorge Bridge, the anti-icing system is expected to cost $1 million.
There is some federal funding available for the systems, however. Bruce said federal grants paid 80 percent on each of the anti-icing projects Boschung has installed in Pennsylvania, with the state paying 20 percent.
The systems are designed to treat a limited stretch of road -- an airport runway, a bridge, a hill, an on- or off-ramp, a tunnel or a highway curve. "It would be cost-prohibitive to do a large section of highway," he explained, "so you do only the most hazardous areas, the areas that usually freeze first."
Sensor system
FAST systems do not replace snow removal in most cases, Bruce said, but removal is easier on treated surfaces because the anti-ice chemical eliminates the bond between the snow and the road surface.
The systems can be installed in road surfaces, which is called retrofitting, or included in new construction.
Workers install a series of computerized sensors and spray dispensers which are flush-mounted in the road. The sensors constantly analyze air, wind and temperature conditions on the road surface, triggering a release of an anti-icing chemical spray before ice forms.
"This is highly technical. It's not like a sprinkler system in a lawn," Bruce said, adding that even the volume and frequency of the sprays is regulated by the sensor system.
Boschung offers several chemical options for the anti-icing spray, Bruce said, but all are designed to be more environmentally friendly to road surfaces and less corrosive for motor vehicles than road salt.
The company's anti-icing system also includes computerized monitoring equipment that allows highway department officials to keep track of highway surface conditions without leaving the office.
Its services include designing, installing and maintaining the systems year-round.
Like its Swiss sister company, Boschung America is family owned. Justin Bruce's older brother Jay is president, and his father, Robert, is also a vice president. The company employs eight at its Cass Street headquarters in New Castle.
Earlier attempt
The family's involvement with the Boschung Group evolved from another family-owned business, Bruce & amp; Marilees Electric, which specialized in lighting and electrical work for highway, industrial and commercial uses. The Bruce brothers' grandfather, Howard J. Bruce, founded the company 55 years ago, and it is still operating.
Boschung Group, a 50-year-old company best known for its manufacture of snowplows, street sweepers and other heavy road equipment, had tried to bring its anti-icing systems to North America in the late 1980s.
The effort failed, Justin Bruce said, because installation methods and the government chain of command were so different in the United States from what the Swiss officials were accustomed to in Europe.
Members of the Bruce family began talking with Boschung officials in 1999, thinking that anti-icing system installation might be a productive sideline for their business.
Bruce & amp; Marilees Electric served as an installation contractor for the Swiss firm at first. The Bruce family and three owners of Boschung Group, all brothers, formed Boschung America about a year ago.
vinarsky@vindy.com