icing occurrence, control and prevention

SR 151 o1.s~z

Special Report 151

ICING OCCURRENCE, CONTROL AND PREVENTION

AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kevin L. Carey

July 1970

PREPARED IN COOPERATION WITH

STATE OF ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS

AND

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION

CORPS OF ENGINEERS, U.S. ARMY

COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LABORATORY HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE AND SALE; ITS DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED.

The findings in this report are not to be construed as an official Department of the Army position unless so designated by other authorized documents.

The opinions, findings, and con-clusions expressed in this publi· cation are those of the authors and not necesearily those of the State of Alaska or the Federal Highway Ad· ministration.

Destroy this report when no longer needed. Do not return it to the originator.

ICING OCCURRENCE, CONTROL AND PREVENTION

AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kevin L. Corey

July 1970

PREPARED IN COOPERATION WITH

STATE OF ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS

AND

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION

DA TASK 1T062112A13001

CORPS OF ENGINEERS, U.S. ARMY

COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LABORA'fORY HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR PUBL.IC REL.EASE AND SAL.E; ITS DISTRIBUTION IS UNL.IMITED.

ii

PREFACE

This bibliography was prepared by Mr. Kevin L. Carey, Research Civil Engineer, under the general supervision of Mr. A.F. Wuori (Chief, Applied Research Branch) and Mr. K.A. Linell (Chief, Experimental Engineering Division).

The identification, compilation, and annotation of these references on icing occurrence, control, and prevention was performed as part of a cooperative research study between the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory and the State of Alaska, De-partment of Highways. The State of Alaska portion of the project was funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Ac;lministration.

SUMMARY

An icing is a mass of surface ice formed during the winter by successive freezing of sheets of water that seep from tho grounc;l, from a river, or from a spring. Icings cause severe problems when they occur near· highways, railroads, airfields, or structures. Annotations.given for 93 papers, articles, or books from North America and the Soviet Union describe the ways in which icings form and develop, as well as a wide variety of tech-niques for controlling and preventing icings and their harmful effects on transportation. The entries span the period from 1919 to 1966. The annotated bibliography can serve many purposes in the transportation field, such as (a) providing an understanding of the mechanics of icing processes, (b) expanding acquaintance with the various methods for combating icings, and (c) giving an assessment of the degree of success of familiar methods as experienced in the Soviet Union.

ICING OCCURRENCE, CONTROL, AND PREVENTION An Annotated Bibliography

by

Kevin L. Carey

INTRODUCTION

An icing is a mass of surface ice formed during the winter by successive freezing of sheets of water that seep from the ground, from a river, or from a spring (Muller, 1947). Icings cause severe problems when they occur near highways, railroads, airfields, or structures. This annotated bibliography can acquaint interested parties with icing processes, and inform them of present prac-tices of icing prevention and control, particularly in the Soviet Union.

The bibliography contains 94 entries; annotations are given for all but one. These entries were selected from over 200 references collected between December 1966 and March 1968, during a literature survey which formed part of a cooperative study between the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory and the State of Alaska on the prevention and control of culvert and road icings. The literature survey covered the holdings of the USA CRREL library and the libraries of Dartmouth College, whic~ include the Stefansson Collection.

The objective of thi~ literature survey was to assemble information on all aspects of icing phenomena: causes of occurrence of river, spring, and seepage icing; problems created by icings in connection with roads, railroads, airfields, and their drainage facilities; and methods, both active and passive, of combating icings and associated problems. Of the total number of references collected, about 85% deal wholly or in part with icing, while the remaining 15% cover subjects which are pertinent to the study of icing such as permafrost, hydrology, and ice-control techniques. The entries which follow were selected from the total number of references in an effort to minimize repetitive material and eliminate items with information of marginal value.

In the more than 200 references, contributions from the Soviet Union are about twice the number of those from the United States. However, much of the Russian literature is repetitive. Of the 94 entries which follow, 51 are by Russian workers, 37 are by Americans, and only 6 are by Canadians. No articles by Fennoscandian writers were found. Of course, the published record of work in a given country may not be closely related to the amount of study actually performed in that cpuntry. Very recent developments, if such exist, are too new to appear in the literature that is available at present; this is especially true in the case of work done in the Soviet Union.

Of the 93 following annotations 65 are based on the original papers, or, in the case of many Russian papers, based on English translations. Fourteen Russian papers were translated specifi·

· cally for this study. These annotations are condensations of all or part of the individual papers, or,

2 ICING OCCURRENCE, CONTROL, AND PREVENTION

in some cases, direct quotations of appropriate portions of the papers. The remaining 28 annota-tions are derived from two sources: 1) abstracts contained in the Bibliograplly on Cold Regions Science and Technology, USA CRREL Report 12 (indicated following the annotation by the credit From SIP plus the abstract number), and 2) annotations contained in Ground Water in Permafrost Regions - An Annotated Bibliography, by John R. Williams, U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1792, 294 p., 1965 (indicated following the annotation by the credit From WSP 1792).

The entries are listed alphabetically by author. In the case of two or more papers by the same author, the listing is chronological, beginning with the oldest paper. For the Russian references, the titles are transliterated in the style of the Library of Congress, but without the diacritical marks.

Papers translated by the U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center and by the National Research Council, Canada, are available from the Clearinghouse (CFSTI), Springfield, Virginia 22151.

ICING OCCURRENCE, CONTROL, AND PREVENTION

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANDERSON, A.A. (1956) Railroad location in Alaska. Proceedings of the 4th Alaskan Science Conference, 1953, p. 25-36.

Usually icings form where cuts have been made in solid rock along the toe of a high, steep mountain, and where water seepage channels in the rock are then exposed to the winter atmosphere. Icings probably could be avoided by locating the route on a fill embankment a short distance away from the toe of the slope.

ARE, F.E. (1965) Thermal conductivity of air-ice covers. (Teploprovodnost' vozdushno-ledianykh pokrytii.) Akademiia Nauk SSSR, Sibirskoe Otdelenie, Institut Merzlotovedeniia. Moscow: Izd-vo Nauka, p. 73-81.

The term "air-ice" cover is used for a layer of ice, supported above ground by short wooden or concrete pillars, which protects the ground against winter freezing. Such a cover is obtained by flooding the ground with a layer of water of certain thickness and letting it freeze down to 20-30 cm with subsequent evac-uation of the remaining water. The air-ice cover is widely used in practice, the dimensions usually being estimated intuitively. The author presents a method of calculating thermal conductivity coefficients of ice and air interlayers, and a de-tailed discussion of the optimal dimensions of the cover and their calculation. From SIP 25696.

ARE, F .E. AND BALOBAEV, V. T. ( 1965) Protection of ground against winter freezing by an air-ice cover. (Zaschita grunta ot zimnego promerzaniia pri pomoshchi vozdushno-ledianogo pokrytiia.) Akademiia Nauk SSSR, Sibirskoe Otdelenie, Institut Merzlotovedeniia. Moscow: Izd-vo Nauk, p. 82-93.

Different types of air-ice covers, consisting of ice layers separated by air, are discussed and their thermal conductivities evaluated mathematically. It is recommended that layer thickness be held to a minimum, thus increasing the heat protection effect of the covers, the depth of the water layer on the ground being the same. The surface ice layer must be thick enough to withstand the weight of a man with an instrument and the weight of snow cover; the underlying layers must be much thinner. The thickness of air layers is determined by the possibil-ities of maintaining water level to the least required depth while that of the under-lying ice layers is determined by the capability of withstanding their own weight. From SIP 25697.

ARUTIUNIAN, S.Z. (1966) Active icing on section 23 of the railroad line. (O deistvuyushchikh naledyakh na 23-i distansii puti.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh, no. 7, p. 13-17. Moscow: Transport. Translated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-558-68.

Spring icings and ground icings form with an intensity that is directly related to the winter air temperature and the time and amount of snowfall. Colder tempera-tures favor more rapid icing formation; early and heavy snowfalls retard icing forma-tion. However, the rate of icing growth is greatest during the period January through March. Individual icings reach sizes of 10,000 to 17 ,000 m2 and thicknesses of 1 to 3 m. Before 1956, icings were combated by erecting wooden barriers and walls to

3


prevent the icings from reaching the drainage structures. Also, the outlets of the drainage structures were closed during the winter, allowing ice to accumulate be-. hind them. These methods were not satisfactory. Starting in 1957, the practice was begun to divert icing feed-water through the drainage structures by means of gutters cut in the ice and wooden troughs; this resulted in substantial cost savings.

A case is described wherein a wooden trestle was replaced in 1955 with a concrete culvert having a smaller opening, resulting in a substantial increase in the size of the icing which occurred annually at this point. In 1958 a concrete wall was built across the stream 30 m upstream from the culvert opening. The wall had open-ings fitted with detachable covers. However, the wall did not effectively hold back the icing because the wall foundation was not made impermeable, and water seeped under the wall to form an icing at the culvert entrance.

Another case is described which involved the capping of springs 80 m from the right of way, and the installation of tile drain pipe to conduct the spring water to the downslope side of the right of way.

A third icing was combated by building an earth wall with drainage culverts at its base 10 m upstream from a wooden railroad trestle. The earth wall was 50 m long and had a 2-m-high wood fence along its top. However, this barrier did not survive a severe winter, and the trestle became clogged with ice. The next year the trestle was replaced with a pile bridge having a larger opening, but even this fills with ice, requiring that a 5 x 3-m drainage channel be cut in the ice in the early spring to pass meltwater under the bridge.

The type and size of anti-icing structures should be determined on the basis of local conditions, that is, a case-study approach should be used. The collection and drainage of ground water, either by means of buried conduits or deep excavated channels, appears to be an effective technique. It is'inadvisable to replace wooden trestles with culverts; the size of the openings of drainage structures should be made as large as possible.

BAKHAREV, I.I. (1966) Filtration dikes in the areas of icing development. (Fil'truiushchie nasypi na nalednykh uchastkakh.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. Bor'ba s nalediami na zhelez_nykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh, no. 7, p. 46-51. Moscow: Transport,: Translated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-629-68.

It is proposed that filtration dikes (embankment fills composed of coarse gran-ular material) could be used in many cases where small bridges and culverts are now specified, and that filtration dikes may offer less difficulty with icings than bridges or culverts. Past experience with filtration dikes has indicated that they do not create and/or aggravate icings as might first be supposed. It is recognized that icings near man-made structures occur primarily as a result of the disruption of natural hydrogeological conditions. This is especially true of small structures such as bridges and culverts. Observations indicate that filtration dikes, in contrast, do not have these ill effects. They do not alter the cross section of underground water now, and they are thermo-insulators, reducing the penetration depth of seasonal frost.

Two examples of filtration dikes are discussed, one without a culvert and one with a culvert, showing the effect of the dikes in reducing the penetration of seasonal frost. The pore spaces within the dikes do not become filled with ice as some authors:


expect, but remain dry through the winter; any water approaching the dike freezes at or near its face, which is at or below freezing temperature while the interior of the dike is above freezing. During the spring, the melting of ice on the face of a filtration dike is more rapid than, for instance, within a culvert, and hence water flow past the right of way can begin earlier.

In locations where natural icings already occur, filtration dikes may be equipped with culverts installed 1 to 1.5 m above the base of the dike, such that the culvert foundation is permeable to small streams of water, and the culvert itself is less susceptible to being filled by a growing icing, by virtue of its being high. Yet the culvert can handle initial runoff in the spring.

Filtration dikes are suitable for use in dry ravines and in permanent streams where the flow rate of the water does not exceed 10 m3/sec (about 350 ft3/sec).

BOL'SHAKOV, S.M. (1966) Icing as a negative physical and geological phenomenon. (Naledi kak otritsatel'noe fiziko-geologicheskoe yavlenie.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh, no. 7, p. 72-83. Moscow: Transport. Translated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-413-68.

The author comments that knowledge of the icing process is still inadequate, and consequently the theoretical basis for anti-icing techniques remains inadequate. It is noted that climate alone does not determine the incidence of icing, but that geological and hydrological characteristics, in conjunction with climate, determine icing activity. Permafrost, while not a prerequisite to icing, may intensify and complicate icing activity.

An example of the influence of geological and hydrological characteristics is given by a discussion of the Taishet-Lena Road. The western part of this road ( 400 km long) has only 9 icing locations, while the eastern part (320 km long) has 95 icing locations, with the drastic difference in icing activity explained by differences in the geological and hydrological characteristics.

Stream icing is substantially greater on rivers whose now is derived primarily from springs and groundwater than on rivers whose now derives mainly from precip-itation. And dissected topography of large relief favors icing development, com-pared to plains, due to larger and more numerous springs and groundwater outflows.

It is stated that no uniform classification system exists for icings, and that those classification systems which are widely accepted (Chekotillo, TSvid and Makarov; and Tolstikhin) are based on the origin of the icing feed-water. The au• thor offers his own classification based on the physical and geological indicators which determine the dynamics, regime, and magnitude of the icing process. While developed from a slightly different viewpoint, this classification is fundamentally no different from previous ones, though its clarity warrants inclusion here:

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Icing type

Surface water

Ground water

Icing subtype

River and stream water

High ground water

Ground Supraperma· water ·frost water

Subterranean Subterranean water water

(springs)

Subterranean Interperma-water frost and

subperma-frost inter· nal water (taryns)

Mixed water

Characteristic external features of the icing

Originate in the stream. channel and spread on the surface of the river ice; the outline of the icing is similar to that of the chan-nel; the ice surface is flat or concave, oc· casionally convex with drops and scattered· hummocks. The ice is thinly laminated, pure white and blue with interlayers of snow and air.

A small area and small ice thickness; its elongated shape extends across the flow and the slope. Such icings are formed near topographic breaks. Icings are shaped like hummocks. The ice is granular, it contains congealed snow and its color is slightly similar to that of the surround-ing ground.

Very similar to the icings of high ground water, but smaller in area and thickness; they frequently form hummocks, especially in flat areas where the flow of water is insignificant or nonexistent. ! They extend across the flow and the slope. They form along roads and paths, in hollows and drainage ditches.

Extend along the slope, in ravines and river beds. Areas and thicknesses are considerable. Characterized by the pres-ence of hummocks and hydrolaccoliths. Ice is mostly pure, blue and obliquely lami· nated. ·

Enormous in size. Some of the Yakutian taryns are 100 km long, 3-5 km wide, and 10· 13 m thick. Their areas usually exceed a million square meters, and their· volumes are one million cubic meters and larger. They develop in river valleys and may ex-tend to mountain slopes and watersheds. Alternating icings and open spaces are observable along the stream. This type of icing includes hydrolaccoliths.

Distinguished by a combination of forms and features peculiar to icings from rivers, ground wate{, and subterranean water with prevailing features of_the predominant type.

Characteristic regime of the iciug

The characteristic conditions begin with the onset of very cold weather, and the larger the river, the later they begin; they last until the end of the cold weather, ; In the case of small streams the growth of an icing ceases by the end of the first half of the winter.

They are fed by unstable and limited-yield ground water, develop early and last not more than two or three months.

They are produced by suprapermafrost water freezing on the surface of the ground, and are characterized by a low temperature, small yield and unstable regime; they appear with the first severe cold and last not more than one or two months.

Produced by the freezing of the discharge from permanent springs of subterranean water, which is characterized by a stable regime; the icing exists throughout the winter and frequently forms enormous accu-mulations of ice.

Associated with the internal subpermafrost water emerging from the tectonic fissures and faults, and characterized by a low temperature, stable conditions and abundant water supply, these icings appear with the first frosts and grow throughout the winter forming enormous accumulations of ice; the icings frequently last many years.

The characteristic features and dynamics of the icings are determined by the type of water feeding them.


As far as engineering works are concerned, icings may be regarded as either natural or artificial. Natural icings are those developing under unfavorable natural physical and geological conditions, while artificial icings are those developing as a result of the disruption of natural geological and hydrological conditions due to construction.

The approach in combating natural icings may follow one of two paths: 1) de-signing installations that would permit the unhindered development of icings, as for example a high bridge with a large opening (a passive approach), or 2) elimi-nating the causes of icing or relocating the icing before it encroaches on a road (an active approach).

The basic approach to combating artificial icings is to develop preventive measures during the route selection and planning phases of the project, or at least measures aimed at reducing icings to a minimum. These approaches are based on the understanding of the natural patterns of icing development, which permit some prediction of the icing problems that could result upon the construction of the route.

A table showing anti-icing techniques is included as follows:

Type of icing

Icings produced by surface water

Icings produced by ground water

Icings produced by subterranean water

Anti-icing measures

In the case of large natural icings forming on a river above a road crossing, the bridge opening and the embankment height are increased to facilitate the free passage of the ice. In the case of a large flow and positive thermal balance of a stream, the now should be passed through the installation before cooling to the freezing point. A stream with a negative ther-mal balance near the installation is passed through by use of a trough which may be heated if necessary; also by cleaning, straightening, and deepening the stream bed. Icings on small streams may be retained by barriers.

The section is dried and the water level lowered by means of deep ditches and troughs; in the case of icings formed by suprapermafrost water, the permafrost table is lowered. Icings may be induced to form and be retained far from the installation by the introduction of frost belts, screens and fences, and by raising the embankment and covering it with draining soil. Or the ice may be cracked and removed from openings in the in-stallation to allow for passage of the spring water.

The sources of water are drained or dammed and channeled off across the road whenever water-bearing strata are opened and the road intersects nearby springs. In all other cases the channel of the stream is controlled and an optimal thermal regime of the water flow is created by concentrating it and building special troughs for the passage of water through the installation, or by increasing the openings in the installation and the preferential construction of bridges. Very large icings should either be avoided or enabled to pass through the in-stallation. On small streams far from a road the ice layers are retained by levees and fences.

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Type of icing

Icings produced by mixed water

Anti-icing measures

The complex methods employed are determined by the type of water feeding the icing and the natural conditions.

BROHM, D.R.; COOKE, W.G. AND LESLIE, A. (1964) Snow and ice control on the provincial highway system of Ontario. In Snow removal and ice control. Pro-ceedings of a conference held in Ottawa, 17-18 February 1964. Tech. Memo~ no.83, National Research Council, Canada, Associate Committee on Soil and Snow Mechan-ics, p. 64-84.

"To control icing in drainage facilities, the following minimum pipe sizes have been established:

1. Culverts crossing beneath pavements - 30 inches diameter 2. Entrance culverts - 18 inches diameter 3. Sewers - 12 inches diameter.

"In order that the water may flow freely through culverts, the ends of the culverts shall be kept free of snow and ice, otherwise the culverts may become blocked, and during mild spells cause flooding on the road and adjoining lands. Sometimes it may be necessary to use salt or calcium chloride to prevent blockage. The chemical shall be placed at the inlet end, and spread over the surface of the ice. When a culvert becomes completely blocked the patrolman shall ask for a steam boiler to thaw out the culvert. Salt in a burlap bag may be used to keep catch basins from freezing." (p. 77)

CHEKOTILLO, A.M. (1940} Icing and measures against it. (Naledi i bor'ba s nimi.) Edited by M.I. Sumgin, Gushosdor NKVD, SSSR, 136 p. Detailed English abstract, titled Icings and countermeasures, in Investigation of airfield drainage~-Arctic and subarctic regions, Part II: Translations of selected topics (ACFEL TR 19, Part II) prepared by Meir Pilch, St. Anthony Falls Hydraulics Lab., University of Minnesota, fo.r Corps of Engineers, U.~. Army, St. Paul District, 148 p., 1949.

This basic textbook is intended for use in planning and building railroads and highways in permafrost regions. Nearly half of the text is devoted to description and classification of icing processes and phenomena, theory of icing formations, magnitude of subsurface water pressure, and the influence of snow cover on icing. From SIP U658.

The term icing (Russian: naled) refers to ·a mass of ice formed during the winter by successive freezing of sheets of water seeping from a river, the ground, a spring, or a combination of such sources. Icings form irregular sheets or fields, mounds attaining large dimensions, or incrustations on slopes. Most icings melt during the summer and reappear the following winter; the remnants of icings that do not disappear entirely during the summer are called taryns. Conditions favorable for the formation of icings are 1) groundwater in the active layer, 2) low air tempera-ture and thin snow cover during the early part of the winter, 3) proximity of perma-frost table to the ground surface, and 4) thick snow cover during the latter part of the winter.


River icings are formed when the freezing of a shallow reach impedes the now upstream, increasing the hydrostatic pressure of the water above the ice barrier. The water is forced to break through fissures in the ice or emerge along the banks as seepage; it freezes and gradually forms the icing. Ground icings are formed by freezing of groundwater seepage caused by winter freezing of the active layer to the permafrost table. Groundwater from suprapermafrost or subpermafrost sources feeding springs forms icings. Some icings form mounds, in which the water is sometimes under such great pressure that they explode.

The earliest theory of icing by Pod'iakonov, modified by Sumgin, accounts for river icing, but does not explain ground icing. Later, Sumgin accounted for forma-tion of icings by stresses produced in the ground during freezing. Pressure in the ground is caused either by change in volume when water is converted to ice or by force of crystallization of ice. This pressure causes water to move laterally, or upward, in the direction of lesser resistance. A formula was worked out by Sumgin for the development of icing mounds. Petrov experimented with pressure measure-ments of icing mounds and found that from an initial stage consisting of an upper and a lower passive ice layer an application of external freezing placed the upper layer under increased pressure. Melting in the lower layer is caused by this in-creased pressure. To the water obtained from melting in the lower layer is added water from external sources to fill the voids left by the volume decrease on thawing. Finally, with continued penetration of freezing, a new wedge of ice is formed from the water in the lower layer, and the remains of the lower ice layer and the upper passive layer are raised to increase the height of the icing mound.

Icings are destructive to roads, bridges, buildings and other structures. Meas-ures against them are grouped into two categories, active and passive. The passive countermeasures are 1) removing the ice, 2) diverting the water that feeds the icing, 3) constructing barriers (e.g. fences) against the icings, 4) enlarging the cut in which the ice forms, and 5) relocating the site of the structure. The active countermeasures are 1) draining the site of the icing, 2) constructing frost belts, 3) deepening and straightening the liver channels, and 4) insulating the stream channels. From WSP 1792.

CHEKOTILLO, A.M. (1940) Warming river beds to combat icin1s around brld1es. (Uteplenie rusel kak sposob bor'by s rechnymi nalediami u mostov.) Stroitel'stvo Dorog, vol. 3, no. 8, p. :37-39.

Classification and the theory of icing processes, subsurface hydrostatic pressure, and influence of frost belts on the icing location are discussed. Methods of preventing icings under and near bridges are outlined. The most feasible method in permafrost areas consists of insulating the bridge area. Branches, straw, dry peat, and/or loose snow are piled in an area covering the width of the stream and including a strip of ground 1 m wide on each bank, and extending 50 m upstream · and 100 m downstream from the bridge. This type of insulation prevents extensive freezing and insures a free now of ground and surface waters under the bridge. Bridges with spans 3 m or more long and having a clearance greater than 1.5 m can be readily insulated by this method. From SIP U2761.

CHEKOTILLO, A.M. (1941) Region of the great icings: icing• of eastern Yakutla. (Oblast'.. velikikh naledei; naledei Vostochnoi IAlmtii.) lzvestiia Akademii Nauk SSSR, Seriia geologicheskaia, no. 1, p, 94-113.

9


The characteristics of icings in eastern Yakutia are 1) all are of immense size, sometimes many kilometers in length; 2) all are formed in river valleys, and none are formed by suprapermafrost groundwater; 3) they are formed in the upper courses of rivers, near the bases of mountains, but only rarely in plains or lowlands; 4) they appear every year at the same place, but their boundaries vary; 5) they are usually active all winter; 6) there are unfrozen water channels under the icings which enable water to reach remote parts of the icing; and 7) in summer most of the icings are thawed, but some persist to the following winter. The icings are produced by the freezing of groundwater or river water forced to the surface by hydrostatic pressure. This pressure is generated in permafrost regions by the downward freezing of rivers and lakes restricted in their flow by natural or artificial obstacles. Most lakes and rivers freeze to the bottom in winter and form small icings covering areas from 1 to 15 km 2

• But sources of water either from the rivers or from suprapermafrost ground-water seem too small to form the extensive fields of ice. Shvetsov and Sedov (1940) concluded that these icings were formed by discharge of groundwater from below the permafrost. From WSP 1792 and SIP U2343.

CHEKOTILLO, A.M. (1946) Control or naleds on the Alcan Highway. (Bor'ba s nalediami na avtostrade Kanada-Aliaska.) Merzlotovedenie, no. 1, p. 69-78.

The efficiency of various methods of icing control is discussed on the basis of American experience on the Alcan Highway in 1942-1944 and investigations in Siberia by Soviet scientists. The study of giant Siberian icings showed that the active method of icing control should be preferred as more effective and less expen-sive. Special designs of deep and narrow trenches and pipe networks for drainage and the heating of water by steam as used on the Alcan Highway were too expensive. The same results were obtained in Siberia by simple ditches covered with brush and snow to protect water from freezing. Changing flow direction with dams of frozen ground gave complete protection without costly dra~nage networks. From SIP 15892.

CHEKOTILLO, A.M. (1946) Measures against icing. (Bor'ba a nalediami.) Priroda, vol. 35, no. 1, p. 20-28. ·

Since icing causes deformation of buildings and other structures and renders roads impassable, precautionary measures are of primary importance. Such remedial action may be corrective or preventive. Ground icings may be eliminated by 1) con-struction of adequate draiilage systems, 2) the erection of permanent or temporary barriers to prevent the movement of groundwater, 3) removal of the icing, 4) widening cuts, and 5) transferring structures to new locations. Rivers may be deepened and straightened, and small creeks may be heated to insure free flow. From SIP U663.

CHEKOTILLO, A.M. (1946) Naleds in Alaska. (0 nalediakh Aliaski.) Merzlotovedenie, no. 1, p. 111-118.

Investigations on icings in Alaska since 1904 are briefly outlined, and published conclusions on their origin are compared with data obtained in Siberia, w~ere physi-ographical conditions for icing appearance are similar. The study of icings and methods of their control in Alaska reached maturity only when the Alcan Highway was constructed, that is, 10 to 15 years later than in the Soviet Union. The results of Soviet experience were ignored, so that much expensive and inefficient experi-mentation was repeated. A uniform terminology has not been developed in the United States, and usage varies widely. Such terms as glacier of hillside origin,


ice fountain, crystophene, crystocrene, glaciering, and surface ice mass have been used only by their creators. The term icing suggested by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1944 is more successful and probably will be used in the future in the United States. From SIP 15980.

CHEKOTILLO, A.M. (1946) Solving the problems or "nalyeds" in permafrost regions. Engineering News-Record, vol. 137, pt. 2, p. 724-727, Nov. 28.

Until the 1930's, the struggle against icings was passive, aiming to eliminate consequences, with no consideration of causal factors. At the end of the 1920's M.I. Sumgin developed a theory of icing processes to give a scientific basis to a' program of anti-icing measures. He recommended trying to locate bridges and roads where icings are not apt to form. Failing this, the icings should be transferred to locations where they will do no harm. For groundwater icings, the flow should be intercepted at some distance away from the road (by use of frost belts or constructed impervious barriers founded on underlying impervious strata). For river water icings, Sumgin recommended deepening the river channel or transferring the icing location by a frost belt upstream from the usual place of formation. Later, these techniques were broadened to include "warmth retention" (insulation) in small channels, but these methods are not fully perfected.

Presently employed methods are subdivided according to whether icings are of groundwater origin or river origin:

Groundwater icings

1. General drainage of the area removes the cause of icings - water. Shallow ditches (16 to 20 in. deep) are most frequently used.

2. Frost belts are wide (10 to 15 ft) but shallow (20 to 40 in. in depth) ditches from which all turf and vegetation have been removed. This is a permanent type of belt, as opposed to the seasonal type of belt where only snow is removed (the latter is effective where vegetation is slight). In plan view, frost belts are convex downstream, or are made of two straight segments which meet at an angle of 160° to 170° at the center of the valley. Small or intermediate icings need only one permanent belt, but large icings require an additional one or two belts, usually of the seasonal type. Belts should be 60 to 300 ft apart, with the closer spacing used on steeper slopes. A wing, which is a shallower cleared strip 15 to 30 ft wide on the upstream side of a frost belt, is often effective in improving performance. In summer, frost belts must be insulated by a 12 to 16-in. layer of moss or peat. In the first half of the winter, snow must be removed from frost belts, to permit the rapid penetration of seasonal frost.

3, Surface barriers are used when it is not possible or when it is too late to use frost belts or to build channels to carry away the icing feed-water. Permanent barriers are usually earth levees, high enough to contain all the water feeding the particular icing, : Gaps in the barriers are left open in summer to allow the passage of surface runoff; in winter these are closed. Barriers should be no closer than 60 ft to the road or structure. Temporary barriers are used when an icing appears too suddenly to be controlled otherwise, or when other methods have failed. They are commonly log walls or fences covered with snow. Occasionally snow alone is used.

4. Widening of cuts is done to accommodate ice from cut bank seepages.

11


5. Drainage of icing feed-water is done when this water is from below the permafrost. The water is channeled away to places where its freezing will do no harm. Covered and insulated ditches are used. Dry moss and peat 20 in. thick are placed over branches and timbers, later to be covered by snow, either naturally falling or artificially placed. If the normal depth of snow on the ground is over 12 in., the moss or peat may be neglected. These covers are removed in the spring.

6. The transfer of structures is worth the trouble in some cases. River icings

1. Frost belts must go across the entire river valley, and they must be deeper than those for groundwater icings .. Shore portions are prepared before freeze-up, while channel portions are made step by step as the river ice cover thickens due to freezing at the belt location. Eventually the channel portion is cut 10 to 12 in. into the riverbed, and it is 10 to 15 ft wide. Ice and soil removed during the excavation of the belt are used as a levee on the downstream side of the belt. Several belts may be needed, at least 60 ft apart. The first belt should be between 600 and 900 ft from the structure. Water must be drained from the ditches of the belt. Maintenance of river frost belts is mostly snow removai.

2. Drainage of icing feed-water is accomplished by open or covered ditches, sometimes cut in the ice under a bridge, running from a hole through the ice 20 ft upstream from the bridge to another hole 20 ft downstream from the bridge. These ditches must be insulated, and they need constant maintenance.

3. Barriers used against river icings are temporary devices made of timber or snow; sometimes several are arranged in parallel rows. The closest barrier should be 300 ft from the structure.

4. Deepening and straightening river channels often prevent the freezing of rivers to the bottom, which is the cause of river icings. Vegetation must remain on the banks to help retain snow which will serve to insulate the bank soil.

5. "Warmth retention" in channels under roadways combats the tendency for the roadbed to act as an unwanted frost belt. An insulated cover over the channel is built from a point upstream (60 to 300 ft) from the structure to a point downstream (60 to 150 ft) from the structure. The cover is made by a 12 to 18-in. layer of branches and brush laid across the stream, then covered with snow, moss or peat. On wide channels, this cover is supported by a wood deck. About 3 ft of each bank should also be protected by the cover. The space between the bottom of the bridge members and the insulated cover should be filled with at least 20 in. of loose, dry snow. Another method of insulating a stream is to create an air gap under an ice cover by temporarily damming the stream, letting an ice cover freeze to a 5 or 6-in. thickness, and then removing the dam so that an 8 to 12-in. air gap remains. The ice is then covered with snow or moss for more insulation. Maintenance of insulated channels involves removal of insulation in the spring and replacement in the fall. Moss and peat must be stored dry. No winter maintenance is n_eeded.

CHEKOTILLO, A.M. (1945) Current measures against icing in the U.S.A. and Canada (Abstract). In Referati Nauclmo -- Issledovatelnikh Rabot, 1945; Otdelenie Geol.-Geogr. Nauk., Akad. Nauk SSSR, Moscow, 1947. Translated abstract in Investigations of airfield drainage-Arctic and subarctic regions, Part II: Trans-lations of selected topics (ACFEL TR 19, Part II) prepared by M. Pilch,


St. Anthony Falls Hydraulics Lab., University of Minnesota, for Corps of Engineers U.S. Army, St. Paul District, 148 p., 1949.

In this summary of material in Canadian and American publications on measures used to combat icings, it is found that American research workers (Leffingwell, Taber, Eager, and Pryor) have worked out the general aspects of the theory of icing processes. For ~his reason, passive methods, directed not at the causes of icing but at the liquidation of its effects, are predominant in the efforts to combat icings. American engineers and technicians are proceeding correctly with respect to meas-ures used against icings, but lag 15 to 20 years behind the engineers of the Soviet Union in this field. ·However, in the field of mechanization, the United States is more advanced than the Soviet Union. From WSP 1792.

CHEKOTILLO, A.M. AND TSVID, A.A. (1962) Recommendations for naled control. (Rekomendatsii po bor'be s nalediami.) Moscow: Gos. Izd.-vo. lit. po stroitel' stvu arkhitekture i stroitel 'nym materialam, 42 p.

The nature, types, and forms of icings and the causes of their formation are discussed. The icings may be seasonal or of longer duration, and they develop from river, spring, and ground waters, or from thawing snow along rivers, in thalweg areas, on slopes and cliffs, watersheds, and excavated grounds. The intensity of icing development depends on climatic and hydrologic conditions, and on man's activities. A discussion of methods to control icings occurring at structures and roads located on permafrost and on seasonally frozen ground, in open areas and in populated places, outlines the following measures: 1) removal of threatened struc-tures or road sections to areas not subjected to icing; 2) raising of the structure or road; 3) removal of the icing by chipping, explosives, or thawing; 4) building of barriers against water intrusion; 5) prevention of frost mound growth; 6) providing drainage; 7) deepening and straightening of river beds; 8) warming (insulation ?) of water in trenches and rivers; and 9) construction of frost belts around structures to prevent inflow of groundwater. From SIP 21153.

CHEKOTILLO, A.M.; TSVID, A.A. AND MAKAROV, V.N. (1960) Naleds in the USSR and their control. (Naledi na territorii SSSR i bor'ba a nimi.) Blagoveshchensk: Amurskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel'stvo, 207 p. Translated for USA CRREL, 1965,

After a brief review of early reports and identification of icings and their causes, a systematic description is given of river, spring, ground, snowmelt, and mixed types of icings. The importance of various geological, hydrological, and topographic fac-tors in their formation is examined, and several theoretical principles are advanced. It is emphasized that the relationship between the amount as well as the timing of the first snow fall and the incidence of icing continues to be a major problem, although it is now well established that large amounts of summer precipitation (especially in the latter part of the summer) set the stage for extensive and long-lasting icings.

Since icings must be considered in construction work in permafrost areas and areas of seasonal freezing of the ground, their effects on roads, railroads, and other structures are outlined, and the following measures for combating icings are described in detail:

Passive measures

Shifting routes Raising grades

13


Excavating storage basins Breaking up icings Blasting Thawing Building dams and barriers Preventing icing mound explosions, and Building log bridges to traverse icings.

Active measures

A. : River icing

Deepening and straightening channels Heating the stream water, and Insulating the stream channel.

B. Spring icing

Regulating runoff with dams Building narrow channels Insulating ditches and gullies, and Draining spring water away in conduits.

C. : Ground icing Drying the ground by means of ditches Building subsurface drainage facilities to lower the ground water table Insulating the ground, and Building frost belts.

These measures are exemplified in a detailed account of icing control work during construction of the Urgal-Izvestkovaya stretch of the Amur Railroad.

This is a book-length work on icings, containing all the basic material found in Chekotillo's other works, and in the works of many other Russian writers. The control and prevention methods are described in detail, and there are numerous photographs and diagrams. However, quantitative treatment is not given. From SIP 19100 and translation.

CHERNYSHEV, M.IA. (1928) Naleds and frost heaving. (Naledi i pucheniia.): Zheleznodorozhnoe Delo, Put', vol. 5, no. 7-8, p. J-9, July-Aug.

The penetration of subpermafrost water through fissures in frozen soil and subsequent freezing near the surface result in the formation and growth of icings. Icings reach a thickness of 3 m at some points in eastern Siberia. From SIP 9340.

CHERNYSHEV, M.IA. (1935) Search tor underground water in perpetually rrozen areas. Journal of the American Water Works Association, vol. 27, p. 581-593, May.

When the water-bearing layer is compressed between the downward penetrating seasonal frost and the permafrost, the water under hydrostatic pressure breaks through to the surface at the weakest point in the seasonally frozen layer. The water forms an icing or an icefield; under heated buildings the water can emerge with less difficulty and may inundate the building, freeze, and fill the structure with ice. From WSP 1792.


CLARK, A.C. (1943) The Alaska Highway -- effect of climate and soils on design. Civil Engineering, vol. :13, p. 209-212, May.

Water seeps from side slopes and causes a continuous buildup of ice across the road. "Glaciering" in stream channels may be due to the "continual freezing and subsequent overflowing of the stream water." This activity may cause ice over sections of road or bridges. Small truss bridges have been completely encased in ice. It is rep·orted that depths of ice as great as 50 ft have accumulated in some stream channels.

Cut bank seepages may be handled by porous drains, but freezing of the drains would be a problem. Native moss is suggested for insulating drains, especially near outlets. In the case of streams, dikes on each side, extending far upstream, are recommended in the belief that flow would thus be accelerated, and hence sediment deposition would be reduced and ice formation retarded.

DEMANOV, D.A. (1966) Exploitation of rights-of-way in the icing areas. (Ekspluatatsiia zemlianogo polotna na uchastkakh s nalednymi iavleniiami.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykll dorogakll, no. 7, p. u-11, 1966. Moscow: Transport. Translated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-509-68. AD 691544.

On the Far Eastern Railway, over 80% of the icings occur on the two northern sections: Izvestkovaya-Urgal, and Pivan'-Sovetskaya Gavan'. Most of these are within the former section. Railroad construction on the steep valley sides along mountain rivers disturbed the natural hydrogeological conditions, changed the ground-water regime, and the clearing of forest vegetation increased seasonal frost penetra-tion. Since 1951, three trains have been derailed by icings. Drainage structures clogged by ice create the danger or washouts.

The Railway has used almost all known icing control devices and structures. Much of the work in developing specific problem solutions has been done by the Khabarovsk Institute of Railroad Engineering and the Novosibirsk Branch of the Giprotranskar'yer (State Institute for Geological Survey and Designing Gravel Plant.s and Quarries). The most successful methods have been the installation of permanent drainage and damming facilities. Passive measures of icing control (earth embank-ments, fences, permafrost belts, and insulated ditches) have been employed. These may operate well with considerable maintenance and expense, but their many faults indicate that they should be considered as only temporary measures. Some of the faults are described; most are due to poor maintenance, but many defects in design exist. Earth embankments for retaining icings are generally favored over ice fences. Permafrost belts often fail to perform as planned, because they are in many cases inaccessible by equipment for the required snow removal.

Filtering embankments, or filtration dikes, have performed well in replacing small bridges and culverts where icings were a problem (see Bakharev, I.I.).

Steam from locomotives is sometimes used in the maintenance program to thaw openings in frozen culverts.

15


EAGER, W.L. AND PRYOR, W. T. (1945) Ice formation on the Alaska Highway. Public Roads, vol. 24, p. 55-74, 82, Jan.-Feb.-Mar.

About 603 of the precipitation along the Alaska Highway normally occurs from May through September. Icing can only occur when the latent heat of water is trans-ferred to a colder medium by radiation, convection or conduction. In arctic and sub-arctic regions, the rate of change of air temperature closely follows the variation in the receipt of solar energy. A water surface radiates heat nearly like a black body; much heat can be lost by radiation to the sky if the sky is clear and the air has a low moisture content. Radiation back from the sky is controlled by the moisture content of the atmosphere. Snow is 4 to 20 times more effective as an insulating material than ice, depending on the degree of compaction of the snow. Heat is con-ducted 20 times faster through water than through air; heat conduction in ice is about 4 times faster than in water. Heat conduction in ice is slightly faster than in moist soil and in the earth's crust, and from 4 to 20 times faster than in snow. In water and air, convection has more significance than conduction. Since snow is a good insulator, icing is not a serious problem in areas of heavy snowfall.

Sources of water feeding icings are: 1) surface water flowing in rivers and streams, 2) spring water from fissures and porous strata flowing to the surface at a definite place, and 3) percolating or seeping water from muskeg swamps, talus slopes, alluvial fans, seams between strata of ledge rock, and sloping ground with a heavy vegetal cover. Icings may be natural or artificial. Icing is always worse in wide, shallow, gravelly channels with steep gradients than it is in deep, narrow, low-velocity streams having heavy overhanging vegetation on the banks.

Practically none of the icings observed (1942-43 winter) could be blamed on a single circumstance or condition. More than half occurred where natural conditions would have produced some "icing had they been left undisturbed, but the amount of icing was greatly increased as a result of disturbance created in construction of the highway. '-.

Most of the icings (723) were in regions of heavy organic ground cover (more than 12 in. ~hick), 253 were in areas of medium cover (6 to 12 in.), and·23 were in areas of light cover (less than 6 in.). Only 13 occurred where there was no ground cover. Activity of the observed icings was distributed in time as follows: Novem-ber, 313 were active; December, 623; January, 76%; February, 75%; and March, 54%. Small streams about 1 to 4 ft wide and about 3 to 12 in. deep, and seeps, are the main sources of water causing major icings. The small springs mostly originate from muskeg areas, or a heavy mat of ground cover. Seepage was commonly from the top of cut banks. The observations indicate that icings have less tendency to form in flatter areas, and more tendency to form where stream gradient is fairly steep. Also, south-facing slopes favor more active icing. Icings are more common where soil is of the more porous or granular type. Wood culverts and metal culverts appeared to be about equally subject to icing. Permafrost areas showed a decided tendency to have icing problems. Major icings continued to be active for about a month after the mean minimum temperatures had passed, but minor icings stopped their activity about two months after they had begun. Deeper snow cover appeared to prevent icing.

Maximum winter temperatures in 1943-44 occurred at elevations around 2300 ft, being colder at higher and lower elevations. The greatest frequency of active icings was above 2100 ft. This is explained by 1) more rugged topography, such that


watercourses, though smaller, are more numerous, 2) steeper watercourses than at lower elevations, with steeper watercourses being more subject to icing, and 3) wider fluctuations in temperature, even though the average is higher. The rela-tion between icing activity and temperature that is stated here is direct, that is, as temperature goes down, icing activity decreases. But commonly the relation had been thought to be inverse, that is, as temperature goes down, icing activity in-creases. It is argued that both relationships are valid; the former (direct) relation-ship is an expression of the long-range situation, while the latter (inverse) relation applied to the short-range situation. To explain this, first it is emphasized that icing depends on both the flow of water and on air temperature. Other things being equal, for maximum icing there must be maximum now coupled with low temperature. But when the air temperature is consistently very low, now is inevitably decreased, which means icing decreases. This decrease in now is bound to lag considerably behind the decrease in air temperature. So on the short term, during this lag period, icing actually increases following a drop in air temperature, due to more rapid freezing.

Methods used to combat icing, or which are suggested by this study, are:

1. Improvement in the drainage channels and structures 2. I.nstallation of numerous and large drainage structures 3. Raising the roadway grade 4. Construction of dikes to confine the now within certain channels 5. Construction of subsurface drains 6. Construction of basins for formation and storage of ice, either at the

roadway or some distance upstream 7. Construction of di version dikes and ditches 8. Stripping areas across watercourses and seepage areas to induce

icing when winter begins and 9. Construction of dikes to act as storage dams for ice accumulation.

Drainage ditches should be as deep and as narrow as possible, and there should be no break in the grade line at the structure. Overflow culverts may be used in deep fill sections to accommodate flow when the main culverts are blocked by icings. Cross-drainage culverts should be numerous, since an icing may divert now from normal courses. In the region traversed by the Alaska Highway, April, which is the month of the thaw, is one of the driest months of the year in terms of precipitation. Thus only a small passageway needs to be started in the ice - the slow meltwater runoff will enlarge it. Subdrains may be used to dry spring or seep areas where there is no permafrost, or where it is very deep.

Criteria for the use of frost belts are:

1. Flow must be near the ground surface. 2. Flow must be slight or the available storage space must be large.

(Even a flow as little as 6.9 gal/min, i.e., 0.0154 ft'/sec, will cover an acre of ground with 1 ft of ice in a month).

3, Conditions must be such that the flow will not merely be diverted around the initial ice formation and strike the highway at a new place to cause icing there.

4. Snow cover at the induced-icing area must be removed or compacted whenever the accumulation of snow prevents freezing.

17


The control of icings already fonned is accomplished by 1) heating flowing water artificially, 2) periodic removal of ice by mechanical means or by melting using artificial heat, and 3) carrying flow in channels cut in ice. Firepots were used in method 1 . Tractor rippers, blade graders, motor patrols, blasting, and oil-burning torches or wooq fires were used in method 2 • Channels may be cut in ice using flame throwers or steam jets with a steam generator mounted on a truck. This last method is especially effective.

EROKHIN, M.D. (1966) Preventing the formation of naleds by thermoinsulation of the stream. (Bor'ba s nalediami tennoizoliatsiei potoka.) Avtomobil'nye Dorogi, no. 9, p. 11-12.

FEDORTSOV, V.A. (1937) Permafrost and icing in the northeastern Yakut region. (0 vechnoi merzlote i nalediakh v severovostochnoi Yakutii.) Akademiia Nauk SSSR, Trudy komissii po izucheniiu vechnoi merzloty, no. 5, p. 93-104.

Icings in the Yakut region were at a peak during spring when the snow cover reached a maximum. Icings formed on the Bytantaia, Dolgo, and Tostakh Rivers when the flow was diminished by the total freezing of shallow sections. This process increased the hydrostatic pressure above the pennafrost to the point of rupture, overflow, and subsequent refreezing. Icing developed along mountainsides where the strata and the side of the mountain slope in the same direction. From SIP U1758.

FINNIE, RICHARD (1949) The Alaska Highway. In Encyclopedia Arctica, vol. IX, ed. by V. ~tefansson. Unpublished.

" .. :.Water seeping under an insulating cover of moss and snow would often rise to the surface at points along the road and build up into treacherous mounds of ice •• ; "

" ... [Icing] was the result of overflow and progressive freezing of running or seeping water, commonly from a gully, creek, or nearby muskeg flat. Highway glaciers (icings) consist of sheets, terraces, domes, or cones of ice which often have water running over, through, or under them even in the coldest weather. Hydro-static pressure due to progressive freezing of frost-trapped bodies of ground water is believed to be a responsible factor. Interruption of the insulating blanket of vegetation on [sic; probably or] fluffy snow may cause icing to develop wherever springs are flowing beneath. The only practicable solution found was to relocate the most susceptible portions of the road on better ground. However, the less persistent glaciers (icings) could be controlled with bulldozers and ·graders, or by blasting, or by thawing them with fires in fuel drums,"

FINNIE, RICHARD (1949) The Canol Project. In Encyclopedia Arctica, vol. IX, ed. by V. Stefansson. : Unpublished.

"Warm springs flowing under a cover of moss and snow would break out to the surface wherever they met an obstacle; and if the obstacle chanced to be a road, the water would accumulate in low spots on mild days and build up successive layers of ice on cold days until it menaced or halted traffic. These so-called 'glaciers' had to be fought constantly. Sometimes they were kept moving by fires in gasoline drums; sometimes they were blasted out. : They were unpredictable and no way was found to get rid of them permanently except by relocating parts of the road where they were most troublesome."


FLINT, H.R. (1944) Winter road maintenance on the Alaska Highway. Engineering and Contract Record, vol. 57, no. 32, p. 30-34. (Same text with some different illustrations contained in: The second winter's experience on the Alaska Highway; organization for combatting snow and ice. Roads and Bridges, vol. 82, no. 7, p. 41-44, 79, July 1944.)

It is believed that the mild 1943-44 winter was responsible for icing inactivity, compared to the ·previous winter. On some unused old alignments (bypassed by new construction) that had icing in the winter of 1942-43, none developed in 1943-44. Steam was successful in making openings under the ice. Moss was cleared from the ground above the road to divert small surface flows and create icings in the cleared area before the water reached the highway. Barrel or half-barrel stoves, burning wood or oil, located in shelte.rs or in the open, were placed at the ends of culverts, and often used until steam thawing could be done. Flame throwers were slow and dangerous. To open or keep open ditches, blasting, a one-tooth ripper, or a grader was used. Icing was no more or less severe in wood or metal culverts.

GHIGLIONE, A.F. (1948) Highways, bridges, and protection from ice damage. Re-port, Alaska Road Commission, 10 p. (Essentially same infonnation contained in: Problems of icing on roads and airfields. Paper delivered before American Society of Civil Engineers, 10 p.,: Oct 23, 1951; and Subarctic highway construction and maintenance. Proceedings of the 5th Alaskan Science Conference, 1954, p. 16-21, Nov 1957.):

Southerly exposures are recommended for road locations because, among other reasons, on south-facing slopes there is usually less ground ice ~ormation (icing). It is also recommended that "wet side hills or slopes which indicate possible effluent seepages are avoided since •• :.:winter ground icing will nonnally result." Some general factors which contribute to icing are:

1. A rainy season prior to freeze-up will increase the ground water now in winter and usually cause more and heavier icing.

2. An early heavy snow will tend to insulate the ground and minimize ice formation. Conversely, prolonged freezing w~ather with little snow results in considerable icing.

3. A severe winter with long periods of extreme cold may tend to freeze back and stop the now and fonnation of seepage type ice, but will increase the formation of stream and river icing. The reverse is generally true of mild winters.

Effluent ground seepage icing is the predominant form to be coped with in winter maintenance operations in Alaska. Ice fences are used to combat this form of icing. Fences are placed as soon as icing is observed, or, in the case of annually recurring icings, they may be placed before freeze-up. Fencing consists of wire netting on posts to which has been fastened a layer of canvas, roofing paper, or other similar material. The fence posts may be placed in the ground or in holes in the ice, if ice has already begun to form. The wire netting may be fish-trap wire, chicken wire, or even snow fencing. The fence need be strong enough only to withstand local winds, it will be strengthened as the icing grows. Some-times a second or even a third lift of fencing will be needed on top of the first. These fences require only infrequent attention of maintenance crews. In cases

19

20 ICING OCCURRENCE, CONTROL, AND PREVEN'['ION

where the seepage water flows close to the ground surface uphill from the cut bank or hillside, interception ditches to catch the seepage and divert it to other drainage channels may be used. Other interception ditches to collect and channel the seepage flow and pass it through drainage structures are possible where sufficient heat can be tetained in the water (as by covering and insulating the ditch) to prevent freezing until the flow is past the road. Or, seepage may be frozen at some safe distance up-hill from the road if it can be exposed by clearing, stripping, or ditching.

Stream and river icing is more easily coped with; such icings form year after year at the same sites. Where a stream icing threatens to block the opening of a large culvert or bridge, the stream may sometimes be kept flowing through the open-ing by channeling and heating. Heat may come from steam in pipes supplied by a boiler, or an oil drum fire pot •. Usually an infrequent fire, once a day or less, will provide sufficient heat to keep the channel open.

During spring thaw it is essential that culverts be thawed (by truck-mounted boilers) as quickly as possible. Usually 112-in. pipes connected to steam hoses are run through from the downstream end. Sometimes permanent thaw pipes are placed in the culvert, to which steam hoses can be connected.

In large fills a relief culvert is installed near the top of the fill above the icing height to handle runoff until the lower culvert thaws open.

Freezing back of thawed culverts can be partially controlled by placing a burlap sack of rock salt near the culvert inlet.

HABERLE, CAPT. A.E. (1943) Reconnaissance to determine feasiblllty of winter operation of the Richardson Highway in Alaska. Report prepared under the direction of Col. C.F. :Baish, C.E.,: Executive Engineer, Construction Division, Alaskan Depart-ment, U.S. Army, 20 Dec.

Section VI deals with "road glacier" conditions. Extensive areas of "road ,_ glaciers" must be combated from mile 80 to Fairbanks. Bear Creek near Glennallen is mentioned to form an icing 7 to 9 ft thick, and is an example of stream icing. Seepage icing is exemplified by the slope east of the highway in the vicinity of Paxson Lake, which produces a total of about 7 miles of icing along the 9 miles be-tween mile 179 and 188 (this may not correspond to present mileposts).

To avoid a dangerous transverse slope, logs may be placed at the low side of a road icing to induce the development of a level surface. Icings may also be covered with a few inches of gravel to improve traction, but this does not solve the problem for long. Ditches across icings can be made to channel the water, but they would have to be maintained frequently, probably twice daily.: This is recommended only for small icings.

Methods to eliminate icings may be used. The simplest method is to compact or mat the snow at some distance uphill from the road. This will offer a barrier to running water, and induce the icing to form above the compacted belt, Such a tactic is of little value on steeper slopes. : Barriers can also be made of brush, building up additional height of brush as the induced icing rises. Drainage ditches may be cut into hillsides to drain the seepage water. A method used on the Steese Highway consists of a deep ditch backfilled with loose rock, and covered with a deep layer of native insulating material (muskeg, brush, peat, etc.):. Water infiltrates and is led to an area removed from the road where an icing may develop harmlessly. Heavy snow would add insulation.


The amount of precipitation during the previous summer and the water retained in the ground may be important factors in icings.

Auxiliary winter roads, constructed on fills with no disturbance of the original ground, may be made to bypass stretches of road having severe icing problems.

Removal of accumulated ice in the spring is as great a problem as coping with icings in the winter. Blasting, scarifying, and blading can be done. Allowing time for the ice to rot will make the job easier.

HEMSTOCK, R.A. (1949) Permafrost at Norman Wells, N.W.T. Report, Imperial Oil, Ltd., Calgary, Alta., 100 p.

The rise in the permafrost table below a road 'may disrupt active layer drainage. At Norman Wells, the practice was to use a portable steam generator to open frozen culverts. : Icings are caused by seepages of water from springs or from beneath lake or river ice. Pockets of unfrozen water exist in icings, at least near the surface. For one problem area, it was recommended to build up the road with ice by pumping water and letting it freeze, making the road level higher than the icing level. Shifting routes to other locations is also a recommended measure. One cause of icings is recognized to be the outbreaking of water trapped between surface frost and permafrost. : Oil stoves are used to supply heat to water so it can be led away from, or past, the road before it freezes. It is acknowledged that this is a very expensive technique, and probably feasible only because of the ample supply of cheap fuel in the Norman Wells region. Tractor-drawn rooters and plows are also employed.

Frost belts are mentioned as probably being very satisfactory measures for combating icings, but they were not used near Norman Wells. However, the author believes they would be the cheapest and most effective way of combating icings.

HOPKINS, D.M.; KARLSTROM, T.N.V. AND OTHERS (1955) Permafrost and ground water in Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 264-F, p. :113-146.

Icings "cover large areas on valley floors of nearly every large Arctic and subarctic stream. : They form in reaches where drainage is blocked by ice freezing to the bottom of the channel during early winter. Water breaks through to the sur-face near the 'upstream end of the construction, flows in thin sheets over the flood plain, and freezes. Successive sheets of overflow ice build up icings as much as 10 feet thick. Most of them on Seward Peninsula melt during late summer, but many icings on the Arctic slope persist for several years without melting." (p. 114)

"Flood-plain icings ... ~ndicate that some flow of water continues after the fall freezeup. The water may originate withi~ the stream channel, within the bed of the stream, in terrace gravel, in local gravel fill associated with lakes, or from springs in bedrock. Areas upstream from icings thus are relatively favorable sites for near-surface ground-water prospecting." (p. 119)

"Flood-plain icings are useful guides to ground-water supplies in stream valleys on Seward Peninsula. : Many icings are closely associated with perennial springs; others form in reaches where bedrock underlies the stream bed at shallow depth, forcing to the surface water that had been moving through deep channel gravel farther upstream ... :'.' (p, 121)

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HORNER, S.E. (1944) Anticipated maintenance aspects of "icing" on the Alaska Highway - winter of 1943-1944. Memorandum Report, Federal Works Agency, Public Roads Administration, Alaska District.

Icings may be associated with springs a:nd seepages, small streams in which freezing may nearly or entirely close the channel, large streams with braided chan-nels, muskeg outflows, alluvial fans, impediments to natural surface and subsurface drainage systems, or runoff of surface wate~ during a mid-winter thaw. : Some of the variables controlling icing activity are: the degree of saturation of the soil by melting snow and summer rain, the depth of snow on the ground and the dates be .. tween which snow falls, the intensity and duration of low temperatures during the winter, and the annual alteration by streams of their courses.

The prevention of icing depends largely on controlling the rate of heat loss from the water. It is common for a small stream having a narrow, well-defined channel with a high gradient to flow for considerable distances during sub-freezing temperatures. But icing may begin to form where the stream is caused to spread out by an obstruction or a poorly defined channel, such as at a culvert or in the cleared right-of-way area. Use can be made of this fact by placing an impediment in the channel at a selected location to cause the icing to develop a safe distance away from the road. :

Muskegs (areas covered by moss or decayed vegetal matter of any thickness, saturated with water, and imposed on any topography) are often reservoirs of unfrozen water throughout the winter due to the insulation of the moss and snow cover. By destroying the insulation at selected points, either by compressing or removing the cover, icing can be induced to form a safe distance away from the road. Frost penetra-tion creates barriers to the flow of subsurface drainage, and forces water to the ground surface where icing will take place. By employing this principle, many subsurface drainage systems can be induced to form icings where they will cause no problem.

JESS, ARTHUR (1954) Some aspects of ground-ice control on Alaskan highways. Proceedings of the 3rd Alaskan Science Conference, 1952, p. 25-26.

Ground icing is a mass of surface ice formed by the successive freezing of sheets of water that may seep from the ground, from a river, or from a spring. Condi-tions favorable for icing formation are: 1) pressure of groundwater in the active frost layer, 2) low air temperature and only a thin cover of snow during the early part of the winter, 3) proximity of the permafrost table to the ground surface, and 4) thick snow cover during the latter part of the winter. Cut-bank seepage which forms ice is the predominant type of icing to be coped with. Ice fences are a very workable control method for this type of icing. An interception ditch (frost belt) can be cut to divert or relocate the icing.

River icing can be prevented by building snow banks on the ice across the river at shallow places and near rapids above the road crossing. At the same time a hole is cut in the ice downstream from the crossing to drain water and prevent hydrostatic pressure buildup.

Hillside seepage icing may be prevented by collecting seepage in deep, narrow interception ditches provided with insulation to retain the latent heat of water until the water has passed through the culvert. On roads closed in the winter, ice may build up as much as 20 ft thick, over a length of 1000 ft or more, and so it is a serious problem to open these roads in the late winter. Blasting, ripping, and cutting followed by blading are required, supplemented by sprinkling coal dust, dirt, ashes, or rock salt on the ice to accelerate melting.


JOHNSON, L.A. (1950) Investigation of airfield drainage, Arctic and subarctic regions. Supplement to part I. Field reconnaissance and analysis. St. Anthony Falls Hydraulics Lab., Univ. 9f Minnesota, for Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, St. Paul District, 57 p.

" ... [The] formation of surface icings is not confined to areas where permafrost exists." An example of an icing is described which occurred at Minnehaha Falls

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in April 1949 .. '' ... It [is] .. :.:apparent that the major causative factor [is] not the formation of a frost dam at the site of the road. This may or may not be a contributing factor, depending largely upon the age of the road."

"The icings inspected were either irregular sheets or fields of ice with no uniformity as to shape, thickness, or size. The only similarity was the laminated structure of each, indicating that irrespective of shape, size, or cause, the actual process of formation is the same. Thin films of water traverse over layers of ice or other material and, exposed to the cold air, freeze and form the first or an additional layer of ice. As the flow of water continues, the process is repeated and an icing with horizontal laminations continues to grow until either the source of water supply is exhausted or warmer weather begins. (p. 18)

"For the purpose of analysis, icings may be divided into three groups depending largely on the nature of the source of water supply. If the source of water is from river flow either above or below the river bed, the term river icing applies. If the source is from ground water now above the permafrost table, ground icing is the term most commonly used. This term should not be confused with ground ice which is often encountered as deposits in fine-grained soils of the Arctic and sub-Arctic. The term spring icing should be confined to the occurrence when the source of water is from subpermafrost levels. Spring icings are commonly quite large in thickness and areal extent. Human activity can disturb the ground regime sufficiently to cause or accelerate the formation of all types of icings.·"

''River icings. Most streams of Alaska carry large loads of sediment which is not fed into the channels in uniform quantities. Consequently, the rivers are quite wide and relatively shallow. Many rivers have a braided pattern of several smaller streams within the confines of the main channels. These streams frequently shift in transverse position and often do so during one period of high stage. Winter flow is ordinarily very small and does not require any appreciable depths. Ice freezing penetrates to the bottom quite readily, but river discharge continues as ground water now beneath the river bed. Because of thermal effects of flowing water, the soil below stream beds is unfrozen to greater depths than soil located elsewhere. As a consequence there is a large space for ground water storage and flow above the permafrost and below all river beds. The head motivating ground water now is ordinarily quite large and can result in large pressures above sections where the ground water flow is retarded. : Ground water flow retardation is a nat1,1ral process at many river sections because river beds are not homogeneous in water-carrying capacity. · Freezing of the surface water reduces channel area and capacity in some sections more than in others. The water then finds avenues of escape to the top of the ice via weak points, cracks, and fissures. : Here, exposed to the cold atmosphere, the water quickly freezes in thin sheets. This action is progressive and icing develops to increasing thicknesses until the supply of water is exhausted or finds a new outlet, or until the beginning of warmer weather. A bridge may shade the stream bed and also prevent the deposition of snow. Freezing then would be more rapid


beneath the bridge than at either upstream or downstream locations. Subsequent penetration of frost would diminish ground water now capacity at the bridge section and induce the formation of an icing above or at the site. : These icings can be of various shapes and sizes, depending upon valley topography, depth of snow, intensity of cold, water supply, and other factors. : There is need for research to evaluate and weigh the effect of each of the influencing factors.

"Ground icings. Ground icings may take the form of mounds having quite large thicknesses but small areal extents. They may also form as crustations if ground water now is induced to the surface at points which are not of long lateral spacing and of about equal elevation. : In addition to a supply of water, there is another necessary requisite to the formation of an icing •. This other requisite is an area where th~ water can be exposed to the cold atmosphere. A road which is kept cleared of snow offers an excellent site over which flowing water can spread out into a thin film and then freeze. : Icings from ground water above the permafrost are not likely to occur in the Arctic, as there the permafrost table is too close to the surface to pennit any appreciable storage in the active layer. It is in the southern zones of the sub-Arctic and on slopes which face south that this occurrence is the most s'evere. Ground water flow may be induced to the surface in various ways. It is not essential that the seasonal frost reach the permafrost table, although this very effe_ctively blocks ground water flow. Partial freezing of the active layer reduces the area of the section through which ground water must pass. The path of least resistance may lead to the ground surface via a frost crack or fissure, or through holes which have previously been made by burrowing animals. : Water coming to the surface in this way may flow considerable distances down slopes in rills beneath a snow blanket without freezing.

"Various innovations and methods have been tried in attempts to prevent the occurrence of icings. Some of these have met with partial success. The frost belt or dam has been advocated by Russian investigators, but it has been found that this method is effective for a few years only. Observations show that thawing in summer is accelerated at the site of the frost dam, and that eventually the pennafrost table becomes degraded sufficiently to permit ground water flow below the frost dam. : Fences and barriers have been used quite effectively under speci~ circumstances. As a general rule, there are not sufficient basic data from which to plan preventive measures. Further research is recommended to isolate, evaluate, and weigh the effect of contributing factors.

"Spring icings. Icings that occur from subpermafrost water or springs are ordinarily quite thick and cover a considerable area. · Reference is often made to the icing in the Momy River Valley of Siberia. This spring icing is about 15 miles long, 3 miles wide, and averages about 12 ft in thickness. However, it does not melt and form each year. Spring icings can be controlled quite readily. The temperature of the water emerging from the ground is ordinarily quite high and the water does not freeze quickly if confined to a conduit of some kind. : In some cases an insulated conduit may be required to convey the spring water to locations where the formation of icing will do no damage.

"Measures against icings. Although a great deal remains to be learned about the control of the three types of icings, certain generalized aspects may prove help-ful from the standpoint of practical application.


''(1) If the source of water forming the icing is a spring, then it is necessary to resort to drainage or diversion to control the occurrence. This sometimes requires insulated channels. In the case of springs, flows are ordinarily too large to permit storage of ice at or upstream from the site.

''(2) In the case of river icings, depths to the pennafrost table are ordinarily too large to be effectively blocked by accelerated freezing such as is induced by the frost dam or belt. In addition, the sub-bed river now often is in excess of what can be stored as ice above the location of the bridge. The control of river icings then must be concerned with insulation of stream beds at the critical section... [See Chekotillo, A.M., Icing and measures against it, 1940.]

''(3) Ground icings can be controlled to some extent by inducing the ice to form upstream from the site in question. This can be accomplished by the installation of frost belts. : In open terrain some success can be achieved by merely keeping snow removed from a strip crossing the affected area in a direction transverse to ground water flow. Ground water flow will be blocked by freezing and forced to the surface upstream from the cleared area. The snow-free area also provides a cold space on which surface now can spread out and freeze. If necessary, the depth of stored ice can be increased by erecting some barrier to the now, such as an ordinary wood stave snow fence on top of the ice initially formed at the site of the frost belt. In the process which employs the removal of snow, it is essential to shift the position of the belt from year to year in order not to influence unduly the depth to permafrost. In timbered regions it is obviously necessary to maintain the frost belt at one loca-tion to save expense of tree removal. Here consideration should be given to a method proposed by Bykov and Kapterev... [See Muller, S.W.; 1947.]

"The objective of research dealing with icings is to develop preventive measures. This could probably be accomplished by two methods: (a) various innovations and schemes could be tried arbitrarily and discarded if found unsuitable, or (b) systematic research could be initiated to obtain basic information as to causative and contributing factors. The latter method appears to be the more logical approach. : In general, icing research would require surveys and observations of the fonnation and growth at selected sites and correlation of the data with climatological infonnation. The pro-ject shoul·d continue for a sufficient length of time to permit evaluation of the factors influencing the occurrence ...

''Icing research should be initiated in the summer or before freezeup in the fall by making detailed topographic surveys of several sites where icings are known to occur from year to year. This initial survey should include the following:

(a) Position of site with reference to orientation of relief.

(b) Thickness of the ground above the permafrost table.

(c) Direction of ground water now.

(d) Soil texture and structure above the permafrost.

(e) Density and type of vegetal growth.

(f) Geologic formation.

(g) Information on surface water now.

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''Weekly inspections should begin shortly after the freezeup in the fall. Each inspection should note carefully all the conditions at the time, including depth of snow, depth of frost, size, shape, and position of ice fonnation, location of source of water, temperature of water, rate of discharge, color of water, and presence of air bubbles. Marked alterations in size and position of icings should be mapped and shown by contours, photographs, and sketches. The position and movement of trees should be noted." (p. :22-26)

KITZE, F.F. (1964) Control of road icing and culvert maintenance, Richardson, Steese and Elliott Highways, Alaska 1952-1964. U.S. :Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Internal Report no. 42, 10 p.

Water feeding icings may be subsurface groundwater seepage, or surface flow from springs or streams. Sidehill road locations are conducive 'to icing, since percolating groundwater in the active layer is insulated from freezing by the vegeta-tion and the snow cov~r, but freezes upon reaching the exposed road ditch. : Frost penetration in the ground under the plowed roadway may further aid the accumulation of water and ice in the ditch. : Continued accumulation of water and subsequent freezing raises the level of the icing and it may reach the elevation of the road sur-face, spreading over the road. : ''Active icings fed from seepage of ground water are generally identifiable by a characteristic brownish color imparted to the water during movement through the soil." (p. 2)

"Each road icing presents an individual problem as regards elimination or most effective and economical method of control." (p. 3) Measures described are largely aimed at controlling icings rather than preventing their occurrence. Trenching across the surface of icings is done to channelize the flow and prevent further growth of the icing. : Steam thawing is done to re-open ditches and culverts. Fences or barriers are used to control the horizontal extent of icings. Fences are made of plastic sheathing, cloth, paper, burlap, corrugated metal, wood, or similar materials, attached to vertical poles. Icings can be induced to fonn in locations removed from the road by the use of frost belts, which are described as being of two general types: 1) a ditch excavated parallel to the anticipated icing, in which seepage water will collect and freeze, inducing icing formation; and 2) a path parallel to the anticipated icing location, on which the vegetation has been removed to expose the natural soil, per-mitting deep frost penetration and the formation of a frost dam which blocks the seepage of ground water and induces the icing to form in the vicinity of the path. Snow removal from stripped sidehill areas is required early in the freezing season to assure rapid and deep frost penetration. : Icing control by the use of frost belts is more economical than other methods. Icings can sometimes be prevented by careful ditch maintenance, such as the removal of debris and large stones to help establish a steady flow. A normal ice cover may form with flow continuing under the ice. : The blockage of culverts by ice aggravates icing, and culverts that have become frozen are opened by steam thawing. In many cases culverts are kept open by the use of oil-burning firepots, which operate continuously throughout the winter •. "Fire pots require considerable inspection and maintenance for refueling supply tanks and to assure that the fires are burning. Maintenance cost of fire pots is considered small when compared to maintenance effort required to remove an icing from the road once it has formed." (p, 9)

Icings are essentially a drainage problem, and control or elimination of icings must consider the local natural drainage factors involved, Research and experimental


work should be aimed at the elimination of icing rather than its control. Culvert freezing in particular is in need of study; " ... possibly new culvert designs using new materials and new installation measures .. :.:'' (p. 10) may prevent culvert freezing. Electrical energy may prove feasible in preventing culvert freezing in areas where power is available. ·

KORUNOV, M.M. (1939) River icings on lumber roads. (Rechnye naledi na lesovoznykh dorogakh.) Lesnaia lndustriia, no. 9, p. 27-30,

The causes of surface icing and practical countermeasures are outlined. Complete freezing of shallow rapids, the basic cause of icings, may be prevented by heating the riverbed at critical times and places with a specially designed metal heater, and by deepening of the riverbed, Avoidance of riverbeds and river valleys in lumber routing is suggested. From SIP U2415.

KORZH, V.I. (1966) Experience in combating icing on the Taishet-Lena Railway. (Obyt bor'by s nalediami na zheleznoi doroge Taishet-Lena.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nylih dorogakh, no. 7, p. 23-28. Moscow: Transport. Translated for USA CR REL, 1969, by U .s. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-571-68.

The geologic setting is conducive to numerous springs, and these springs form abundant and often large icings. : Along with spring icings, stream icings and ground icings are common. The author proposes that a genetic principle exists which determines the features of development of an icing andthe measures of combating it, based upon the type of water feeding the icing. The number of icings increased from 42 before construction of the railroad (around 1941), to 104 after construction was complete (post 1950), as a result of the disruptions of the natural conditions.

Stream and spring icings have systematically recurred each year, while ground icings have reduced in size and even vanished. : This is the result of the construction of drainage facilities for the rail line, lowering the level of groundwater and perma-frost. :

Spring icings appear during the second half of December and increase in size until the end of March. : These icings form downstream from the springs at points where flow velocities diminish and the water temperature reduces to freezing; they tend to grow in an upstream direction, and assume an elongated shape.

Stream icings rise to inundate floodplains, and have uneven surfaces with icing mounds upon them. : They develop after the onset of permanent freezing temperatures (November) and melt by the end of March. : Constrictions, such as culvert openings or small bridge openings, make the icing growth more severe.

Initial measures used to combat icings were: deep insulated drainage conduits for spring icings, earthen embankments and ice fences for stream icings, and frost belts for ground icings. : Most of these attempts were unsuccessful due to poor design and a lack of regular maintenance.

After this lack of success, it was realized that special research would have to be done to develop measures suited to each individual icing problem, i.~ •• a case-study approach. This led to the construction of permanent facilities which did not differ in concept from those previously mentioned, but were designed with greater insight into the specific icing problems, and were maintained carefully. The

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l ·


techniques were generally successful except in the case of stream icings, where the author states not enough consideration was given to winter now conditions •.

The author suggests that continuous or periodic electrical heating of streams could be employed to prevent icings at drainage structures on electric railroads.

KRYNINE, D.P. AND JUDD, W.R. (1957) Principles of engineering geology and geotechnics. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 730 p.

The manner in which icings form at points of seepage upslope from positions of deep frost penetration is described. These icings .can be controlled by frost belts (150-300 ft away from the roadway or structure to be protected, 15-30 ft wide, 18 in. deep), ice fences, or by heating with oil burners. :

LEFFINGWELL, E. de K. (1919) The Canning River region, northern Alaska. UJ~. Geological Survey Professional Paper 109, 251 p. :

Middendorf is credited with the following explanation of river icing: river now is impeded by anchor and frazil ice, or the shoal places freeze to the bottom. · Water coming from upstream will rise and flood adjacent land. After complete freeze-up, hydraulic pressure bulges the ice cover, letting water escape to the surface and freeze in sheets. The process repeats all winter or until the water now is reduced and can pass through the streambed gravels. :

LEWIS, C.R. (1962) Icing mound on Sadlerochit River, Alaska. Arctic: Journal of the Arctic Institute of North America, vol. 15, no. 2, p. 145-150.

Comment is made that it is characteristic for broad icings (aufeis) to form on the rivers of the Arctic Coastal Plain at the points where the rivers leave their mountain valleys and pass onto the outwash plain, assuming a braided channel pattern.

LIVEROVSKII, A.V. AND MOROZOV, K.D. (1941) Construction under permafrost con.: dltions. (Stroitel'stvo v usloviiakh vechnoi merzloty.) Leningrad-Mosco'yV: Stroiizdat Narkomstroia, 244 p. Translated as Construction on permafrost (ACFEL TL-21), by Meir Pilch, St. Anthony Falls Hydraulics Lab., University of Minnesota, for Corps of Engineers, U.S. :Army, St. Paul District, 306 p., May 1952. Page numbers for quotations refer to translation. :

Groundwater becomes ·compressed between impervious permafrost and the steadily growing seasonal frost layer. The water is thus under great hydrostatic pressure and breaks through unfrozen areas (as under buildings) or thin portions of frozen ground, and pours out on the surface to form ground icings. River icings form as a result of constriction or blockage of the channel under the ice cover by the progressive thickening of the ice cover. The cross section becomes too small to pass the now, and, since the water cannot pass through the alluvium, the now breaks through to the surface and leads to the formation of an icing. Most extensive icings occur in marshy streams. Icing mound formation is explained as follows: " ... un-frozen water accumulates under the ice, uplifts it, and forms a swelling; another cause is that the water flowing onto the surface of the ice freezes near the place of emergence. The mound gradually grows until a crack appears in it; then the water bursts violently to the surface, shattering and scattering the ice." (p. 20)


Ground icings often have small mounds, usually located near bushes or tree trunks, as their outlets. A true icing mound may form when the seasonal frost layer is underlain by a water-bearing layer resting on rock or on permafrost, or when the suprapermafrost water is under high pressure. The accumulated water causes swelling of the ground and gradual formation of the mound if the overlying frozen layer is sufficiently firm and elastic. Ground icing mounds have an annual cycle, whereas pingos grow for several years, develop a summital crack, and then vanish over several years. Pingos ar·e not (as of 1941) understood,

Spring icings form from subpermafrost water. Generally, winter outlets occur upslope from summer outlets. : Spring icings usually do not appear until December or January, and activity ends in late April or early May. Thus they are later than ground icings, which begin in October or November, and cease activity by mid-winter. Ground icings on steep surfaces (cliffs, cut faces, etc.) are given the name icefalls. In the southern region of permafrost, spring or river icings fill culverts under embankments and clog the openings underneath small bridges •. Petrov is referred to as having said that 803 of the icings on the Amur-Yakutsk Highway resulted from the disruptive effect of building the road. : Groundwater confined by permafrost and seasonal frost will naturally tend to flow to regions of lower pressure - commonly unfrozen portions of the seasonal frost layer.

" •• :.In many cases icings overflow the roads, slowing traffic and making it hazardous ... because of the large areas covered by the icing water, the high icing mounds with deep crevasses up to 50 centimeters in width, and the constantly

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changing surface level of the icing (changes occur every few minutes). Traffic ceases completely at night, since there is danger of falling into a crevasse, immersion in the water at an air temperature of --30°C to -40°C, or negotiating a steep ice slope. '.There-fore, detours are necessary." (p. 64)

" ... Numerous river and spring icings continue to grow all winter without interrup-tion even for a single day.'' (p. 65)

"Culverts are not suitable in areas where icings may form." (p. 149)

In combating icings, the first advice is to avoid areas where icings occur. Since this is often not feasible (for engineering or economic reasons), or since icings may develop after construction where they never were before, some measures are required, : Active methods are preferred, and may include drainage of the locality, frost belts, deepening and straightening of river channels, and insulation of stream beds. Passive methods are also used such as draining the water forming an icing, and using walls, barriers, or fences to prevent the spreading of icings.

"The effectiveness of the measures depends upon careful investigation of the causes of the icing phenomena and upon the corresponding course of action.'• (p. 180)

Ground icing should be controlled by drainage - surface ditches or subsurface drains. The next choice of anti-icing measures would be the use of frost belts. The approximate dimensions of frost belts usually are within these ranges: width of ditch, 5 to 10 m; depth of ditch, 0.5 to 1.0 m; width of stripped belt (wing), 10 to 15 m; distance from the structure, 50 to 100 m. : Frost belts can only be used if there is an impervious layer (permafrost, rock, tight clay) within the soil. "Their effective period, usually not longer than a few years, may be extended if they are covered during the summer with layers of insulation such as peat or moss.':' (p. :182)


Frost belts can be used to combat river icing, by blocking or constricting the flow such that water is forced to the surface. : These belts, cut in ice, can be ·1 to 3 m deep, and 3 to 5 m wide. The distance to the structure should be 100 to 300 m. For small river icings, and if snow is available, wide snow dikes across the river are recommended to reduce freezing of the river at the points where natural blockage usually occurs •. Spring icing can be combated by capping the spring with a well and leading the flow away in insulated pipes or galleries. Insulating stream beds is done by timber grids upon which brush and then peat or moss 20 to 30 cm thick is placed (alternatively, 50 cm of snow may be used). Explosives (thermite) may be used to eliminate icing mounds or icings. Ponding of water is to be avoided, because due to the high heat content of water, permafrost can be deeply thawed in the ground be-low the pond.

LOVE, H.W. (1954) The Northwest Highway System. Engineering Journal, v. 37, p. 671-677, June.

In very cold weather, groundwater flowing beneath the surface is frequently arrested by the deep penetration of frost, and may develop sufficient pressure to burst through the surface, forming an icing. This occurs most frequently on side hills and in permafrost, where the groundwater cannot divert itself downward. The frequency and severity of icing is almost completely dependent on the conditions of freeze-up, that is, on the moisture content of the soil at freeze-up.

Diversion ditches (deep, narrow, and insulated if need be) are recommended for correction of these problems. Ice fences are also mentioned as possible aids in controlling icings.

LOVELL, C. W. JR. AND HERRIN, M. (1953) Review of certain properties and problems of frozen ground, including permafrost. USA SIPRE Report 9, 124 p.

Some natural conditions favorable to the formation of icings are:

1. Abundance of groundwater in the active layer 2. Low air temperature and only thin snow cover during the early part of the

winter 3. Proximity of the permafrost table to the ground surface, and 4. Thick snow cover during the latter part of the winter. A thick snow cover

may act as an insulating blanket for rills beneath the snow carrying flow downslope to an exposed roadway section where icing occurs.

Measures for the control of icings are as follows:

Passive methods

1. Removal of ice

2. Elevation of roadway grade in fill or enlargement of cut section in which icing forms

' 3. Relocation of the structure affected by icing

4. Diversion of the water feeding an existing icing, and

5. Construction of barriers to limit the area of an existing icing.


Active methods

1. Diversion of icing water sources

2. Proper conveyance and protection of surface drainage

Ditch sections Drainage structures Insulation. ·

3. Proper protection of flow in natural channels

Bridge and culvert design Deepening and straightening channels Insulation.

4. Introduction of icing at selected locations by means of frost belts or variants thereof ..

LUKASHEV, K. T. (1938) Permafrost region as a separate topographical and con-struction region. (Oblast' vechnoi merzloty kak osobaia fiziko-geograficheskaia i stroitel'naia oblast' .) Izdanie Lehingradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, Leningrad, 187 p. Translated as Constructions in permafrost region - Parts I and II, 1938. ATI No. 36929, Central Air Documents Office, 167 p., April 1949.

It is acknowledged that roadbeds frequently cause icings where none appeared before. It is emphasized that measures for remedying icings are determined by a whole complex of conditions, and thus it is absolutely necessary to use a case-study approach.

Elevated ditches can be used to carry surface water away from a structure. Frost belts are recommended, and it is suggested to use them only where a natural impermeable base exists, rather than permafrost, whitJh would degrade. Frost belts are inadvisable when the water feeding the icing is subterranean water circulating throughout the year without interruption. In such cases, drainage is called for. Widening cuts to provide greater storage area for ice is mentioned, as is the ultimate cure of moving the structure or road to a more favorable place. :

MCKEEVER, H.J. (1943) Battling ice, snow, thaw, flood. Roads and Streets, vol. 86, no. 10, p. 50-52, Oct.

Icing is caused by "overflow and progressive freezing of nmning or seeping water, generally from a gully, creek, or adjoining muskeg flat •• : •. No doubt hydrostatic pressure due to progressive freezing of frost-trapped bodies of ground water is an active factor... The only practical answer usually is to relocate on better ground." Measures attempted on the Alaska Highway were: blasting, chemicals, stoves, steam-thawing, trenching ruts with picks, and bridging over icings. The best solution proved to be drainage: cross-ruts and culverts (kept open by steam).

Maintaining the Alaskan Highway. Ro;1ds and Streets, vol. 95, p. 106-109, 118, Dec 1952.

The greatest winter maintenance problem is the control of icings. Counter-measures against icings include ditching, raising the road grade, erecting dikes, re-moving ice from culverts with steam, and maintaining culverts free of ice by means of oil stoves and calcium chloride. : Blasting is used as a last resort.

31


MERTlE, J.B., JR. (1930) The Chandalar-Sheenjek District, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 810-B, p. 87-139.

Icings in the upper reaches of the East Fork, Chandalar River, persist into the summer and may in part survive the summer. : They occur in braided reaches, but it is not clear whether the stream is braided because of the icing; or whether the character of the braided channel determines the occurrence of icing. From WSP 1792.

MERTIE, J.B., JR. (1934) Mineral deposits of the Rampart and Hot Springs Districts (Alaska). U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 844-D, p. 163-226.

Icings on Minook Creek below Slate Creek remain until late summer at a wide place in the valley. The icing may be self-perpetuating, because at spring breakup its presence in the river floodplain tends to cause the stream to erode its banks, thus widening the floodplain. : From WSP 1792.

MUDROV, IU. V. (1962) Morphology and genesis of icings in Central Transbaikaliya. (Morfologiia i genezis naledei v TSentral'nom Zabaikal'e.) In Voprosy geograficheskogo merzlotovedeniia i perigliatsial'noi morlologii, p.173-183. Moscow: Moskovskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet. Translated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-489-68.

After a two-year study of icings in the Kruchina River basin in Central Transbaikal, it was concluded that icings of different origins each possess their own unique prop-erties of morphological structure. : Thus it is proposed that the origin or genesis of a particular icing can be determined by examination of the icing during the winter, aided by examination of the icing site during the summer, and that the need for comprehensive hydrogeological investigations to determine the origin of an icing may be precluded. Equipped with knowledge of the origin of a particular icing, appropriate and corre-sponding measures to combat the icing may be applied.

Icings are classified into two categories: 1) river icing and 2) ground icing. These are further subdivided as follows. River icings may be caused by a) surface water from the stream channel itself, or b) subfluvial water from the alluvial deposits beneath the stream channel. Ground icings may be caused by a) suprapermafrost groundwater, or b) subpermafrost groundwater.

River icings caused by surface water generally begin developing shortly after the formation of the normal ice cover (October or November). Backwater is created by the normal ice cover, and the ice cover thickens to the extent that it freezes to the streambed in the shallow places. Thus the river water is confined under great pres-sure, and finally breaks out onto the ice surface, forming overflows which freeze, building the icing from the top surface upward, In the region studied, the thicknesses of these icings is generally small (0.5 to O. 7 m). Such icings ordinarily do not extend beyond the boundaries of the narrow floodplain. The icing surface is level and smooth, and the ice is clear or white and free of foreign inclusions. Due to the limited supply of water feeding this type of icing, the period of growth ends in December or January.

River icings caused by subfluvial water differ from the foregoing in the following respects. Development of this type of icing continues later in the winter, and may last the entire winter if the talik (unfrozen ground) beneath the stream, which contains flowing groundwater, is sufficiently large. The areas of development of these icings are frequently confined to certain sections of the stream, determined by the local


hydrogeology. : The confined water escapes to the ice surface and spreads in all directions before freezing. The icing surface is uneven, often having a terraced or stepped surface (each level just a few centimeters higher than the previous level) and often being hummocky. Icings of this type are much thicker, generally several meters. These icings extend beyond the low floodplain onto the high floodplain, and may even reach the terraces above the floodplain. The ice in many cases is colored, due to mineral ingredients, and may be turbid due to inclusion of soil particles.

While river icings are obviously found in association with rivers, ground icings do not have a clearly expressed zone of development. They are developed on certain relief features, but the area of development may differ in specific cases.

Ground icings caused by suprapermafrost water are much more common in the area studied than those caused by subpermafrost water; also they are smaller. Icing due to suprapermafrost water can generally occur under the follow~ng conditions: nearly level relief or the point of contact of two different forms of relief, a rather thick active layer which is saturated, intensive and uneven seasonal frost penetra-tion, and the presence of an impermeable surface (generally permafrost) at some depth. These icings begin to form in November or December, when the depth of sea-sonal frost penetration approaches the depth of the upper surface of the permafrost, and water thus confined between the seasonal frost and the permafrost breaks through to the ground surface. ·

The most common locale for the formation of these icings is at the foot of slopes of all orientations, although icings are less frequently encountered on northern expo-sures, due to hydrogeological differences. During icing formation, water exits from the ground in only a few places •. These exits are not stationary in location, but generally migrate upslope as the activity progresses. On steeper terrain, this migra-tion is small, but on very gentle slopes, the water outlets may move 100 to 300 m upslope. Thus the icing extends downslope due to the flow of water, as well as up-slope due to the migration of the water outlets. By the end of December or early January, the seasonal frost layer becomes so thick and strong that the icing feed water finds difficulty breaking through to the surface, and so seasonal swelling hummocks (or hydrolaccoliths of one season's duration) are formed by the pressure of the remaining unfrozen suprapermafrost water. Usually one, two, or three of these hummocks or mounds are formed in association with a single icing. These mounds are formed in the soil beneath the icing, generally in the upslope portions of the icing body. The mounds are 2 to 4 m high and 25 to 40 m wide, and have fissures up to 1.5 m wide and up to 1.0 m deep across the domed surface. The cracks reveal the composition of the mounds to be soil and ice; roots and trunks of trees may be shattered by these cracks. : Small icing mounds (consisting entirely of ice) may form on the icing surface, but in general the downslope portions of the icing body are broad and flat while the upslope portions are rugged in relief due to mounds and hummocks •.

In the early stages of development, that is before the formation of hummocks or mounds, the ice is laminar and transparent, with minor inclusions of foreign material. · But after the hummocks and mounds begin to develop, the icing feed water is turbid · with inclusions of soil particles or vegetative matter, and these are incorporated into the portions of the icing formed thereafter. Ground icings from suprapermafrost water generally cease activity in the studied area in February or March, when the supply of

33

34 TCTNG OCCURRENCE, CONTROL, AND PREVENTTON

feed water has been exhausted. : When the icing begins to melt in the spring, it does so from all sides, and the ice disintegrates into a porous, friable mass of round grains, 0.3 to 0. 7 cm in diameter. The seasonal swelling hummocks collapse, leaving small craters having traces of the cracks on their floors, and surrounded by shattered trees and brush. : The boundary of the icing is often well defined by the growth of brush. Generally no streams flow through the icing site in the summer. : These icings usually recur annually in approxiniately the same locations, but the seasonal swelling hum-mocks do not necessarily reappear in the same locations year after year •.

Ground icings caused by subpermafrost water form at spring outlets. : Though some workers maintain that a permanent spring is not essential, the author argues that it is, because if the subpermafrost water was under so little pressure that it could not break through to the ground surface even in summer, then during autumn and winter, when the active layer is frozen, the water would be even less likely to find its way to the surface. : Icings of this type begin to form in October or November, or about a month earlier than icings caused by suprapermafrost water. These icings form almost exclusively at the base of slopes having a southern exposure, due to the exit of subpermafrost water at these locations, which is facilitated by the local ab-sence or thinness of permafrost. The spring locations remain stationary, or shift very little, throughout the winter. Generally there is only one water outlet (the spring it-self), and the surface of the icing is broad and flat. : Seasonal swelling hummocks (composed of soil and ice) are always absent, but small icing mounds (composed entirely of ice) may develop, measuring 0.5 to 0. 7 m high and 0.4 to 1.0 m across •. Since the icing feed water passes through a well-washed route within the ground, the ice is always clean and free of soil or organic particles.: However, the ice may be colored due to minerals in the water. : The laminar structure of the ice is clearly evident.:

These icings continue to develop throughout the winter, since the water source is unaffected by seasonal variations. With the arrival of warmer temperatures, the icing melts from all sides but also is melted by the spring water, which develops a channel through the icing body, cutting through it down to the ground surface. : Unlike icings originating from suprapermafrost water, the ice does not disintegrate into grains, but becomes "candled," that is, it decomposes into separate elongate crystals loosely bundled together with the long axes vertical. : After the icing is gone, its site will be marked by the presence of a small stream carrying the summer spring discharge, the presence of brushy willows which thrive on the available water, and the absence of traces of collapsed seasonal swelling hummocks.

The author cautions that the morphological determination of icing genesis may be applied with certainty only in the hilly taiga region of Central Transbaikal, but that it appears to him that it may be applicable to all of Transbaikal, though this remains unconfirmed.

MULLER, S. W. (1947) Permafrost or permanently frozen ground and related engineering problems. Ann Arbor: J.W. :Edwards, Inc., 231 p.:

Conditions favorable for the formation of icings are:

1. Presence of groundwater in the active layer

2. Low temperatures of the air and only thin cover of snow during the early part of the winter (December, Janullly)

ICING OCCURRENCE, CON'I'ROL, AND PREVENTION

3. Proximity of the permafrost table to the surface of the ground, and

4. Thick cover of snow during the latter part of the winter.

Icings are more likely to develop along a mountain slope with strata dipping in the same direction as the slope than on a slope where the strata dip into the mountain. Icings attain their maximum spread in March when the snow cover is also a maximum (for southern Siberia). If little snow falls in early winter, icings will appear earlier.

To prevent the destructive action of icing it is necessary to·direct the flowing water or to intercept and drain the groundwater which feeds the icing. :

Frost belts, attributed to V.G. Petrov, are described. : They should be as long as or slightly longer than the icing they are to eliminate; dimensions should be 5 to 10 m wide and 0.5 to 1 m deep (or only 5 m wide and 1 m deep if bordered on the upslope side by a strip 10 to 15 m wide cleared of vegetation and sod). Belts should be 50 to 100 m from the roadway. The spoil material should be piled on the downslope side of the belt. Belts should be made before the freeze in the fall, and should be kept clear of snow through January. If the ground is free of natural insulating material (sod, peat, moss) then only snow needs to be cleared from the belt - no excavation is needed. To maintain effectiveness, the frost belt should be filled in each spring with the spoil material or with brush, peat, etc. to prevent degradation of the perma-frost during the summer.

Kapterev and Bykov proposed a different method: building a trench 1 to 1.5 m

35

wide, through the water-bearing layer to the permafrost (perhaps 2 to 2.5 m deep). The trench is backfilled with clay or water-saturated silty or clayey ground, well compacted. A row of pile planks is driven along the length of the trench •. Perhaps 2 to 2.5 m of the piling are left exposed above the original ground surface, and both faces of the piling are covered with fill, which allows a rise of the permafrost table beneath to firmly anchor the piling.

. A frost belt can be made across a river by excavating a ditch in the ice 3 to 4 m wide, and as deep as needed to reach the bed, progressing downward as the ice below the ditch thickens. This ice ditch blends into ditches in the banks cut in the ordinary way. Spoil is piled on the downstream side of the ditch. The upstream side of the ditch should rise at a gentle angle •. If a lot of water accumulates in a frost belt, a drainage ditch cut into the ice downstream and under the bridge may be needed.

Cribbing placed in the river bottom upstream from the road may also act as a frost belt.

At points where stream ice usually freezes solid to the bed, such as at shallow places and near rapids above the road, snow banks may be built on the ice to insulate the ice cover against additional freezing and thickening. At the same time, a hole may be chopped in the ice cover below the road to drain the water and relieve hydrostatic pressure, if required.

An outline for the field survey of icings is given.

NIKIFOROFF, CONSTANTIN (1928) The perpetually frozen subsoil of Siberia. Soil Science, vol. 26, p. 61-82, July.

Icing mounds form in soil due to the compression of soil water between the perma-frost and the advancing seasonal frost •. The resultant bulging of the seasonal frost layer of soil in a given place makes a mound filled with water. The water may drain through cracks and form an icing on the ground surface.


Concerning the icing behavior of streams which freeze to the bottom, one of the problems is that the water forced to the surface may be some distance from the river, and may .saturate several feet of snow, making travel over such snow impos-sible.: The lower the temperature, the greater is the pressure on the confined water, and thus the greater the amount of water forced to the surface •.

The relationship between the many factors which affect icing is illustrated by a hypothetical formula termed the Podyakonoff formula:

where

R = P~Q_a_ d M + N

R energy of the icing phenomena

P force of the frost

c = heat capacity of the alluvium

d thickness of the snow cover

Q quantity of unfrozen water in the riverbed and unfrozen deposits

a = width of the valley

M cross section of the unfrozen deposits in the valley, through which the water is pressed from the bed, and

N = cross section of the open riverbed •.

NOSOV, N.M. (1937) The winter regime or mountain streams and its effect on roads. (Zimnii rezhim gornykh vodotokov i ego vliianie na dorogu.): Doroga i Avtomobil', vol. 8, no. 4, p. ;21-22.

Roads along mountain streams are often subjected to icings during winter. An icing on the Naryn-Kochkorka road along the Dzhuban-Aryk stream (2 m thick and 200 m long) formed after frazil ice blocked the stream now under the ice cover. Hydrostatic pressure raised the groundwater level above the road, water seeped through the ground and formed an icing. Icings can be prevented by raising the road-bed, draining the areas above the road, and removing obstacles from the river. From SIP U4332. .

OBRAZTSOV, N.P. (1966) Controlling icing on railroads and highways in the Kraenolarsk Region. (Bor'ba s nalediami na dorogakh Krasnoiarskogo kraia.): Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. : Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh, no. 7, p. 17-23. Moscow: Transport. Translated for USA CRREL, 1969,lby U.~ •. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-560-68. : AD 691546.

Icing problems in the Krasnoyarsk region are discussed. : The icings may reach thicknesses of 3 to 3.5 m. : It is important to note that this region is one where perma-frost is generally absent.

Experience indicates that bridges with solid piers and abutments tend to block the sub-bed now in the talik below a stream, creating or aggravating icings. Pile trestle and frame bridges, since they disturb the hydrogeological conditions only slightly, are much more favorable with respect to icings.


Culverts are regularly plagued by icing •. One technique which succeeded in eliminating icing was the placement of a low dam about a meter high across the channel, 8 m downstream from the culvert outlet. The dam is composed of rubble and soil with a sandy filler to maintain a certain degree of permeability. At the beginning of winter an ice cover is formed on the pond retained by the dam. : This pond extends upstream through the culvert where the. water depth is about 0.8 m •. Due to the permeability of the dam, the pond level gradually decreases, and an air layer develops between the ice cover and the water. The ice cover plus the air layer insulate the flow from further freezing, and icing does not occur.

The installation of subsurface drainage pipe systems has proved to be one of the most reliable means of icing control, but the costs of such installations indicate that they can be used only in exceptional cases.

Permafrost belts have been used as temporary measures during road construction, but the requirement of moving them frequently has prevented their wide use.

Observations indicated that the thickness of an icing produced by water seepage from the ground increases until a stable heat exchange is established between the air and the underground stream, with subsequent melting of the ice at the bottom due to the insulating effect of the icing. This ground-warming effect of icing, combined with the similar effect of groundwater, is believed to be responsible for the lowering' of the permafrost table beneath bridges, and the subsequent deformation of such structures.

ORGANOV, M.G. (1957) Naleds in river valleys of Maritime Province and certain causes for their formation. (0 nalediakh v dolinakh rek Primor'ia i nekotorykh prichinakh ikh obrazovaniia.) In: Sbornik materialov po voprosam sezonnoi merzloty, Dal'- nevostochnyi Filial Akad. Nauk SSSR, Vladivostok, p. 137-70.

Geological, hydrogeological and hydrological factors determining the formation of river icings in the region are described. Icings occur in areas where alluvial dei}osits are shallower than in neighboring locations but of the same permeability, where the deposits contain impermeable strata, where valleys narrow, and where the riverbed is rocky. The icings form as a stretch of a river freezes to the bottom and water collecting upstream is not able to drain downstream or through the ground, and spills over the ice surface and freezes, the icing gradually spreading to the flood-plain.: From SIP 17396.

PEREKRESTOV, P.P. (1946) Naleds in the Imachinsk cut on the Amur railroad and their control. (Naledi v Imachinskoi vyemke Amurskoi zheleznoi dorogi i bor'ba s nimi.): Merzlotovedenie, vol. :1, p. :142-149.

The problem of icing formation in permafrost regions and railroad protection from icing damage is discussed on the basis of investigations in the Imachinsk cut •. The cut, over 1 km long and to 15 m deep, was made in slate on a slope near Skovorodino Railroad Station in 1911-12. Hydrogeological conditions in the cut area and the proc-ess of annual naled formation are described in detail on the basis of A. Y. :L'vov' s study Water-supply survey and tests in permafrost along the west section of the Amur Railroad published in 1916.

Additional investigations in 1934 showed that the intense icings are associated with groundwater penetration through fissures in the slate. Drains, gutters, and other

37


structures were built without consideration for the severity of the winter, so that deep soil freezing caused them to be blocked with ice. : Drain reconstruction in 1934, which is described in detail, protected the cut from icings and frost heaving, which were never observed during the next eight winters (1936-1944). From SIP 15987.

PERETRUKHIN, N.A. (1966) Characteristics of railway desig0 in the areas of icing development. (Osobennosti proektirovaniia zemlianogo polotna na uchastakakh razvitiia naledei.) Komitet po zemlianomu. polotnu. Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh, no. 7, p. :29-40. : Moscow: Transport. Translated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. :Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-619-68.

The author points out that roadway and railway fills should be designed to accommodate the saturation they may experience due to adjacent icing, to avoid the severe settling which saturation may cause in some soils, as well as to avoid the development of frost mounds in winter. Frost mounds or heaves may measure more than 15 cm high. Avoidance and bypassing of icing areas is the most reliable proce-dure to eliminate these problems. : Devices for combating icings are in two categories: 1) water collection and drainage (ditches, troughs, culverts, subsurface drainage pipes), and 2) barriers for retaining ice (earthen embankments and ice fences). No one technique may be universally applied •. Subsurface drainage systems are generally the most effective measures, but they are also the most expensive. :

Icings which are the direct result of construction far exceed in number the naturally occurring icings. : There is a great need for techniques which will permit forecasting where icing problems will occur prior to route construction.

The permeability of fill materials will have an influence on the behavior of near-surface groundwater, and consequently may influence icing activity. Provided fills are properly designed, a roadway or rail way design made up chiefly of fill sections, to the exclusion or reduction of cut sections, will be completely justified in areas of icing.:

The author notes the present lack of manuals and technical literature to govern the practical design roadways and rail ways in conjunction with icing control installa-tions. He notes particularly the underestimation of the importance of planning for icing problems. He states that anti-icing measures are regarded by builders and supervisors as being of secondary importance, and in many cases icing control or prevention techniques are regarded as objects through which it is possible to cut comers in the construction of the road in order to save money, or to accelerate the opening of the route to traffic. Poor roadway and railway conditions are a direct consequence of such an attitude,

PETROV, V.G. (1930) The naiads of the Am.ur-Yakutsk Highway. (Naledi na Amursko-IAkutskoi magistrali.) Leningrad: Izdanie Akademii Nauk SSSR i Nauchno-Issledovatel 'skogo Avtomobil'no-Dorozhnogo Instituta, text 177 p., atlas 37 p.

Icings along the Amur-Yakutsk Highway were studied in 1927-28 by a special field party which covered 728 km of the highway. : The party studied 122 ground and river icings, and analyzed the effects of permafrost, orography and climatic conditions. Data on icing size, snow-cover depth and the thickness and depth of permafrost are tabulated. : Permafrost was found at depths of about 1.5 m and icings were observed in areas where seasonal frost reached the permafrost table.


A deep snow cover at the beginning of winter prevents seasonal frost penetration to the permafrost table and thus prevents icings. Icing formation under a shallow snow cover begins in December and reaches a maximum in March, when the depth of seasonal frost is maximum •. Icings in this region form more frequently on east and west slopes. The construction of belts of various types to promote deep soil freezing at some distance from the highway is recommended as a measure against icing damage to highways. From SIP 9611.

PETROV, V.G. (1930) Protection of road constructions from naleds. (K voprosu o zashchite dorozhnykh sooruzhenii ot vrednogo vliianiia naledei.): Sovetskaia Aziia, vol. 6, no. :3-4, p. 69-74.

The effects of frozen ground belts on icing control are discussed on the basis of investigations made on the southern part of the Amur-Yakutsk Highway from 1927-1930. During this period 64 river icings and 53 ground icings damaged a 728-km stretch of the road.: The purpose of the frozen ground belt is to divert flowing water from the road. : The simplest method of belt construction is the removal of peat or snow cover, which results in rapid frost penetration to the permafrost table. Excava-tion of ground trenches at some distance from the highway to promote deep freezing was the most effective method used to control ground icings. Bridges were protected from icing damage by excavating cross-river trenches in the ice, From SIP 14122.

PIATNITSKII, V.N. (1940) Causes and control of naled formation. (Prichiny obrazovaniia naledei i metody bor'by s nimi.) Meteorologiia i Gidrologiia, vol. 6, no. ~. p. ~1-67.

39

The river Kakva is 20 to 40 m wide, 187 km long, and nows through the eastern slopes of the central Ural mountains to join the Sosva river. Frazil and anchor ice, ice jams and total freezing of the rapids constrict the stream now and increase the hydrostatic pressure causing frequent disruption of the ice cover and subsequent freezing. The water supply in 1938-1939 was reduced to 130 liters/second from an average of 1000 liters/ second. Surface icing control consisted of removing frazil-ice jams, and preventing the freeze-up of the rapids through insulation and diversion into narrow channels. From SIP U2262.

PORKHAEV, G.V. AND SADOVSKII, A.V. (1959) Road and airfield subgrades. (Zemlianoe polotno dorog i aerodromov.): In: Osnovy geokriologii (merzlotovedeniia).: Moscow: Inst. :Merzlotovedeniia, Akad. :Nauk SSSR. : pt. 2, chap. 8, p. 231-254. : Translated by National Research Council of Canada, Division of Building Research, 30 p., 1965. NRC TT-1220.

Frost penetration deep under cleared roadways creates a barrier to now of supra-permafrost water. This water becomes pressurized (being squeezed between the · seasonal frost and the permafrost) and discharges at the surface, fonning icings along the roadbed, Roads on slopes containing streams of suprapermafrost water are most often subjected to icings. Spring icings are fed b~ subpermafrost water. Spring icings and river icings often form throughout the winter, making their control more difficult than the control of ground icings.

Control methods may be passive or active. Passive techniques may be temporary or permanent. They are the installation of various guards which obstruct the now of icing water toward the roadbed. : Temporary passive measures include snow or ice


walls, transportable fences of crossties and boards, and shields erected at the head of pipes. Permanent guards include earth walls, permanent log fences, water-impermeable screens, and drainage ditches. In certain cases cuts are widened and provided with permanent fences to hold an entire winter's icing. Relocation of the roadway is suggested as economical and expedient in a number of cases.

Active measures aim toward elimination or transfer of icings to harmless loca-tions. These measures include the creation of frozen belts or walls, the deepening and insulating of streambeds, and the drainage of the area by damming and drains. Selection of the proper method should be made after a thorough study of the causes of the particular icing, i.e., a case-study approach. :

One of the most effective methods is the use of a frost belt in cases where the road passes along a slope. Summer insulation used on frost belts is commonly a layer of loose peat or moss, 15 to 20 cm thick.

Insulation of ditches or streams is done by creating a hanging ice cover. : Ditches are dammed by partitions every 40 to 60 m, and after 12 to 15 cm of ice have formed, the partitions are removed and insulation is placed over their former locations. The air under the ice acts as an insulating layer.

Rivers are insulated by covering their ice covers with insulating materials (moss, snow, planking of poles, etc.). Counter-icing belts are created in rivers by spanning the river in autumn with a steel cable to which logs or fagots are attached horizontally. : "The counter-[icing] belt holds back sludge [sic; slush?], which freezes together and creates favorable conditions for the freezing of the stream, as a result of which the [icing] forms near the counter-[icing] belt and not near the [bridge orl installation [being protected]." (p. 45 of translation). :

An effective method for the control of ground icing is the drainage of the area by drains and deep insulated wooden troughs. A constant now of groundwater is necessary, or the drains will freeze in spite of the insulation •.

Spring icings are fought by damming the spring now water and diverting it from the installation by means of insulated ditches.

POT ATUEV A, T. V. ( 1966) Temperature conditions of a small water flow in a segment of a culvert. (Teplovoi rezhim malogo vodotoka na uchastke vodopropusknogo sooruzheniia.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh, no. 'J, p. 97-100.: Moscow: Transport. Translated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-686-68.

Usually small culverts are designed on the basis of maximum expected nows, without consideration of winter conditions. : This results in very small values of depth and velocity for the small winter nows, and the destruction of the insulating capability of the snow, leading to intensive freezing of the water and the development of icing. A concentrated water passage, in the form of a deep, narrow trough, is suggested for preventing total freezing of the now and consequent icing within culverts or under small bridges. :

Under assumed values for all the pertinent parameters, a heat balance equation is developed, and it is concluded that nows of 20 liters/sec (0.71 ft3/sec) or more can pass through a 20-m-long culvert within a o:3-m-wide rectangular trough (or a 0.3- to 0.6-m-wide trapezoidal trough), under a 5-cm ice cover, without freezing. For

' I.

,.


lower flows, additional insulation would have to be used to prevent heat loss, or artificial heating would have to be applied.

It is advisable to modify the approach channel by straightening and deepening it, and to plant shrubbery along the banks to retain snow for the purpose of providing natural insulation.

RICHARDSON, H.W. (1943) Alcan -- America's glory road. Part III - Construction tactics. Engineering News-Record, vol. 130, p. 63-70, Jan 14.

"Another still annoying drainage problem is underground glaciers. These are numerous in the Alaskan mountain sections. A tongue of ice will be cut into in shaping up the grade, Regardless of temperature, and probably caused by pressure, these ice pockets continue to bleed a steady but small amount of water. As soon as the water reaches the road it freezes, piling up ice in layer upon layer. Culverts at such spots soon clog up with ice. The ice tongues do not have to be cut into to act up; there are plenty of cases where the glacier water oozes out of the hillside and manages to reach the road before freezing."

RICHARDSON, H.W. (1944) Finishing the Alaska Highway. Engineering News-Record, vol. :132, p. 96-105, Jan 27.

Regarding seepage icing, bigger culverts, wider ditches, and raising the road grade help to reduce problems. Stream thawing has been practiced. River icing is blamed on permafrost, and the fact that shallow streams start freezing from the bot-tom up. It is mentioned that an icing on the Robertson River went 10 ft over the deck of a temporary trestle.

ROGOZIN, N.A. (1958) Naleds of the Izvestkovaya-Urgal section of the Amur rail-road. (Naledi na linii Izvestkovaia - Urgal Amurskoi zheleznoi dorogi.) Materialy k Ucheniiu o Merzlykh Zonakh Zemnoi Kory, vol. 4, p. 179-195.

The results of personal studies from 1951-1953 on the formation, responsible factors, and effects of icings are reported. The types of water feeding the icings, the preferred sites of icing formation, the effects of icings on railroad operations and associated installations; the duration of icings, and the influence of individual factors on the degree of icing development are discussed individually. The region studied is characterized by the presence of numerous active icings (200 in a stretch of 340 km), forming as a result of the activity of groundwater. The intensity of icing formation is determined by air temperatures, snow-cover depth and duration, the thick-ness of the vegetative cover, summer and autumn precipitation, the orientation of the site, and other climatic, hydrological, and relief factors. Water most responsible for icing formation includes diluvial water located at a depth of 1 to 2.5 m on slopes, and subperrnafrost fissure water •. Ground icings are active from mid-December to late March, and river icings form from early January to the end of winter. Icing development is most intense in severe winters with little snow, and depends on the time interval between the onset of freezing temperatures and the first snowfall. From SIP 18424.

RUMIANTSEV, E.A. (1966) Certain types of structures designed to prevent the formation of spring icings. (0 nekotorykh tipakh protivonalednykh sooruzhenii na kliuchevykh nalediakh.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. : Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh, no. 7, p. 40-46. Moscow: Transport.

41


Translated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. :Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-414-68.

Two types of devices for combating icings are discussed, earthen embankments for retaining icings and subsurface drainage pipes for conducting away icing feed water.

Earthen embankments are a type of permanent ice fence, built away from the road to be protected, for the purpose of preventing an icing from encroaching on the road. In the past, these embankments have been equipped with openings which allowed unrestricted runoff in the summer, but which were closed by wooden partitions in the fall to permit retention of ice, . The main inefficiencies of this type of structure are filtration of groundwater under the embankment and the leakage of water past the wooden gates. In addition, the wooden gates are cumbersome to handle, the timing of their installation in the fall is critical, and their removal in anticipation of spring runoff is difficult since they are frozen in place,

The placement of impermeable walls or membranes is recommended in the active layer of the ground, extending from the ground surface down to the permafrost table. These should be located well upslope from the embankment, so that groundwater will be forced to the surface at points of normal snow cover, rather than beneath the snow-drifts adjacent to the embankment, since the latter situation allows the water to be insulated by the drifted snow, and permits it to re-enter the ground downslope from the impermeable wall, and pass underneath the embankment. : As a variation, the impermeable wall may be installed at the upslope toe of the embankment, with the impermeable material carried upward as a facing on the embankment, to a level above the anticipated icing. In this case, a transverse ditch parallel to the embankment is recommended to be located sufficiently far upslope from the embankment that it will not be covered by drifted snow. This ditch enhances the outlet of groundwater to the surface, for the purpose of its rapid freezing.

Another technique suggested for developing an impe~meable wall beneath the embankment is air-cooling. This is accomplished by air ducts buried in the ground beneath and parallel to the embankment. : Vertical air shafts connect the horizontal duct with the atmosphere. : The risers terminate at different elevations, to promote convection of the cold winter air through the system. The cold air passing through the buried ducts removes heat from the ground, freezing the soil beneath the embank-ment to create an impermeable barrier beneath it. : In the summer, the risers are sealed to prevent air circulation which might cause excessive thawing in the soil.

To overcome the problems associated with wooden gates used in the embankment openings, the wooden gates have been replaced by frames containing a metal grid. The sizes of grid openings have ranged from 0.2 to 0.84 m in the experiments con-ducted by the author. The grids permit water to pass when the water and air tempera-tures are warm, but when colder weather arrives, water will freeze on the metal rods composing the grid, reducing the size of the openings. : Gradually a monolithic ice wall is created as the grid openings close completely, and the icing is retained. :In the spring, meltwater runoff is able to thaw the ice on the grid, and the runoff may pass through. : After the grid is completely free of ice it is removed, so that it does not collect debris during the summer. : The grids are cheaper than wooden gates, and they are lighter, making it much easier for maintenance personnel to handle their installation and removal. : In addition, the timing of installation and removal is not critical.


In cases where the flow is too large to be retained as icing behind an earth embankment, subsurface drainage pipes are used in conjunction with culverts. The subsurface pipes are installed beneath the stream channel, where they can intercept the groundwater flow which occurs in the alluvial materials beneath the stream. : The pipes are placed in trenches transverse to the stream, and are surrounded by coarse material which is selected in sizes to act as a filter. The coarse material extends up to the stream bed as part of the backfill, with slag serving as an insulator com-posing the remainder of the backfill. Thus low stream flow can sink and enter the subsurface drain, merging with the collected groundwater flow. : The drain pipes must exit on the downslope side of the roadway, and because of their depth must either be used in situations where ground slopes are significant, or be very long to exit at the ground surface in areas of very gentle slope. : The subsurface drainage pipes need to be designed to carry only the small flow quantities of winter. The culvert carries the bulk of the spring and summer runoff. If the drainage pipes are designed and function properly, the culvert is dry in winter and does not fill with ice. The placement of the subsurface drains is critical. If they are installed downstream from the point where icing is initiated on the stream, they will do no good; they must be in a location to intercept flow before icing would normally develop •.

RUMIANTSEV, E.A. (1966) The dynamics of the icing process. (Dinamika nalednogo protsessa.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu.: Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh. no, 7, p. 84-97. Moscow: Transport. Translated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-683-68.

Cases are described in which waters within fill sections, trapped between sea-sonal frost and permafrost, feed water to icings in the right-of-way ditches. The icings also receive water from the natural seepage of suprapermafrost water out of the slope beyond the ditches. : The right-of-way ditches act as permafrost belts.

. The development of the icings can be broken down into several time periods. From late October to the end of December, icings grow rapidly. From the end of December to the end of February, a period of stabilization exists, with icing growth noted for only a few locations. During March, growth again occurs, making the third period. The fourth period, the first half of April, is also a period of growth, and is related to melting snow.

A combination of climatic factors affects icing. : The complexity of their inter-action, either amplifying or weakening the intensity of icing activity, makes it impossible under natural conditions to isolate any single climatic factor, or to trace its sole effect on icing.

The amount and distribution in time of precipitation, which determine the condi-tion of supra permafrost groundwater, are the most important factors in the develop-ment of ground icing.

A heavy snow cover, all other climatic factors being constant, tends to reduce ground icing, but increases the incidence of spring icing. :

The most effective methods for combating icing are those which provide for rapid drainage of surface water and groundwater from the icing site.

Fills less than 2 m high should not be constructed in areas of icing, due to the dam created by the merging of seasonal frost with permafrost.

43


RUMIANTSEV, E.A. (1966) Freeze and hot belts and thermal control of iced areas. (Merzlotnye i teplovye poiasa i teplovaia melioratsiia nalednykh uchastkov.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. Bor'ba s nalediami na zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh, no. 7, p. 55-71. Moscow: Transport.

Two types of belt are used to prevent icing of roads by capturing water flowing toward the road; these belts are ditches 5 to 10 m wide and 0.5 to 1.0 m deep, dug out at a 50- to 100-m distance from the road. Their function is to prevent water from entering the road either by its spreading and rapid freezing in the freeze belt or by evacuation through the ''heated" (insulated?) ditch built in such a way that the ground along its perimeter maintains positive temperatures during the major part of the winter season. Ways of calculating the dimensions of the belts are discussed and their effectiveness under different conditions is evaluated, From SIP 25826.

SAVAGE, J.E. (1964) Location and construction of roads in the discontinuous perma-frost zone, Mackenzie District or Northwest Territories. Paper given before the Regional Permafrost Conference, Edmonton, Alberta, Dec 2. :

The technique is mentioned of transferring an icing from a structure to a loca-tion where it will do no harm, by means of erecting low barriers in the stream to generate icing in advance of the structure. Also mentioned is the use of dual staggered culverts in rolatively high earth fills. One pipe is placed in the normal location, and is designed so that it hopefully will not become entirely filled with ice •. The second pipe is placed above and to one side of the first pipe, having its full capacity available for spring flooding conditions while the lower pipe is blocked by ice. Having the upper pipe to one side of the lower pipe means that less vertical distance is required for the dual installation, the amount of initial backup of water is reduced, and the chance of washout is reduced by avoiding too large a plane of weakness in one cross section of the fill.

SHVETSOV, P.F. (1947) The region or the Verkhoyansk and Kolyma mountains.as a separate permafrostological and hydrogeological zone. (Verkhoiansko-Kolymskaia gornaia strana kak osobaia merzlotno-gidrogeologicheskaia provintsiia.) Izvestiia Vsesoiuznogo Geograficheskogo Obshchestva, vol. 79, p. 427438.

The formation of icings in the region is analyzed. Hydrostatic pressure in rivers under thick ice covers produces the usual river icings. : The freezing of groundwater in the active soil layer causes the formation of ground icings. Unusually large icings (100 km 2 or more in area) which continue to grow throughout the winter are observed in northeastern Yakutia, while the growth of ordinary river icings is limited to the beginning of winter. Test borings have shown that these large icings are caused by the upward penetration of subpermafrost water from depths of 100 m or more. From SIP 8874.

SHVETSOV, P.F. AND SEDOV, V.P. (1940) Origin of the extensive aufeis on the Tas-Khaiakhtakh Range. (Text in English,). Akademiia Nauk SSSR Comptes Rendus (Doklady), new ser., vol. 26, no. :4, p. ~80-384, : ·

Icing fields form on the Kyra River where it leaves the northwestern foothills of the Tas-Khaiakhtakh Range and enters the Selennyakh depression, splitting into channels. The total area of icing on the Kyra is 20.1 km 2

, and its thickness reaches


5.5 m; smaller icing fields form on other streams. : The Kyra River above the icing is dry in winter and has practically no ice cover; much of the alluvium of the Kyra Valley is believed to be thin and frozen and of only minor importance as a reservoir for storage of groundwater. At the upper end of the icing field away from the river an ice-free channel 200 m long leads from tM slope of Atkhaia Mountain toward the icing. The water in this channel issues from a number of springs in the streambed and contains gas bubbles. Its temperature is 0.4°C and its discharge is 340 liters/ sec; together with two other larger springs in the vicinity, the total spring discharge is 2730 liters/sec. This flow is approximately 303 greater in winter than the volume of ice in the icing field, but the excess flow can be accounted for by errors in calcu-lation of volume and flow and by runoff beneath the icing. : Springs at the head of the icing on Oyogordakh River flow at the rate of 1400 liters/sec and are constant at 0.5°0.:

Quality-of-water analyses show relatively low concentration of salts, 179 to 226.5 mg/liter, chiefly ca++, Mg++, HC0 3- and 804=. Silicic acid content is 6.5 to 10.5 mg/liter and the pH ranges from 6.4 on Oyogordakh River to 7.6 on Kyra River. : Radioactivity at Oyogordakh Spring is -3.55 x 10·10 g Ra/liter (assuming this means the radioactivity equivalent to 3,55 x 10·10 grams of radium- 226 per liter, the modern expression of the radioactivity would be 3.46 x 10·4 microcuries/liter). Gas from the bottom of the funnels is mainly nitrogen. :

The springs issue along the contact between the granodiorite and sedimentary-volcanic sequence consisting of effusive rocks and sandstone and shale of Mesozoic age and limestone and shale of Silurian age. : The zone of springs follows the foot of the range for approximately 150 km; some springs are not connected to rivers. There must have been a major tectonic disturbance along the line which allows waters to rise through 200 to 300 m of permafrost to form springs. The constant temperature of the waters at all seasons, lack of morphologic or hydrographic features of karst terrain, increased radioactivity and now of nitrogen-rich gas are cited as evidence for origin of the water at depth, not from shallow alluvial deposits or from karst sources. From WSP 1792.

SPINDLER, W.H. (1943) Drainage problems on the Alaska Highway. Highway Magazine, vol. 34, p. :129-136, Nov-Dec. ·(Same text and illustrations contained in: Drainage on the Alaska Highway. Roads and Bridges, vol. 82, no. 1, p. :33-35, 80, Jan 1944.)

" ••• [The] small creeks freeze up during the long hours of darkness, but during the day are fed by seepage of springs which build up ice inside culverts and under and over the roadways of bridges. At MacDonald Creek, for example, one man was kept busy throughout the winter chopping ice off the bridge and occasionally dynamiting the ice upstream from the bridge. At the Johnson River the ice 'glaciered' in layers to a height of 4 feet above the bridge floor - about 14 feet above streambed. At the Robertson River, glacier ice rose 7 feet above the temporary bridge, or 19 feet above streambed. This ice begins to form rapidly in early winter." (p. :129)

STEVENS, J.C. (1940) Winter overflow from ice-gorging on shallow streams. Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, vol. 21, p. <;)73-978, Sept •.

The production of frazil ice in a stream makes the now more viscous, reducing velocities, and requiring an increase in stage. When banks are low (i.~. ,: shallow streams) the banks are overflowed •. The velocities drop further and allow solid

45


freezing, and the valley floor becomes filled with ice. The stream becomes a braided stream on the flat ice surface. The Madison River near Ennis and Three Forks, Montana, behaves this way •. Two types of ice gorges may develop: the "bridging gorge" with little or no overflow, or the "overflow gorge." (Gorge is used in this paper in the sense of jam.) The former type results from sudden and sustained extreme low temperatures (about -15 to -30°F) causing a rapid production of much frazil and a solid freezing of an ice cover - putting an end to the frazil pro-duction. : The latter type results from sustained moderate temperatures (about 10 to 25°F) which are cold enough to cause frazil production, but not cold enough to freeze over the stream entirely, so that frazil continues to be produced. : The ice gorges are a fairly general occurrence on the Madison River.

Discussion of the effect of two dams and reservoirs built on the river is presented. The conclusion is that they would, if anything, reduce the tendency for the Madison River to form ice gorges.

The ice-forming factor is proposed; it is the number of degree days below freezing minus those above freezing, during the winter season. The greater the ice-forming factor, the greater is the ice-forming influence of the winter temperature. Whether the ice formed is of the bridging-gorge type or of the overflow-gorge type depends on the manner that the cold is imposed on the area: sudden extreme cold (bridging gorge resulting), or sustained moderate cold (overflow gorge resulting), or some variety between these two extremes.

STEWART, B.D., JR. (1950) Alaska's Operation Snowball ... Keeps Thompson Pass on Richardson Highway open throughout the winter. Pacific Builder and Engineer, vol. 56, no. 4, p. 77-79.

Some icings, between Mile 40 and Mile 90, Richardson Highway, are such that all the water on the road does not freeze, but instead forms pools of water covered with a layer of ice. These situations can occur within a matter of hours. Ice fences along the road shoulder are used. Culverts are steamed open and then kept open with fire pots. When the temperature is extremely cold, fire pots may not be adequate, so it has been found feasible to dig a narrow and deep trench directly across the road and to lead the water through this trench. A ditch 2 to 3 in. in width and 6 to 8 in. in depth does not present any hazard to traffic and will carry a sizable stream of water for some time without freezing or becoming plugged.

STRAUB, L.G. AND JOHNSON, L.A. (1949) Arctic and subarctic hydrology. In Encyclopedia Arctica, vol. IX, ed •. by V. Stefansson. (Unpublished)

"The sourde of water supply (for icings) may be from springs, groundwater flow, river seepage, or from a combination of these sources •••• The probability of occur-rence (of an icing) is greater on a slope which faces south than on one which faces north .•• :.

"Ground-water flow is an essential requisite for the formation of ground icings. Other favorable factors of growth are:

1) Low temperatures of the air and only a thin cover of snow during the early part of the winter.

2) Thick snow cover during the latter part of winter.


3) A low capacity for ground-water flow above the permafrost so that re-duction of section by seasonal freezing builds up hydrostatic pressure which causes a flow to the surface.

"It is not essential for freezing of the active layer to penetrate to the perma-frost table and thereby block all ground-water flow .. It is entirely possible for water to reach the surface with just a partial damming of the ground-water section .... In practically every case (in Alaska) these (ground) icings were found along highways where human activity had disturbed the thermal regime of the ground."

Earlier in the article, river icing is discussed: "The depth to the permafrost table below rivers is commonly much greater thanthe corresponding distance below the ground surface in general. Considerable ground-water flow occurs along the route and below the bed of most rivers. The surfaces of rivers freeze after cold weather sets in and simultaneously, if not slightly previously, overland flow ceases. Ground-water flow into streams becomes progressively less as the depth of freeze penetrates the active layer. : If the active layer freezes entirely, all ground-water flow into natural channels stops. Then the source of river supply is artesian, through taliks in the permafrost and ground-water flow beneath the channel bed which reduced [sic, reduces?] sub-bed storage in upper reaches.: As the winter season advances, river ice becomes progressively thicker and often freezes to the bed. : Ground-water flow in the sub-bed continues and, if there are no artesian sources of supply, this flow becomes progressively less as upriver sub-bed storage is gradually depleted.

"It is often the case that the su~bed flow capacity of a river section is less than that of adjacent and successive upriver sections. In this case hydro-static pressure is built up, and water is forced to the surface through weak points and cracks in the river ice. : Here, exposed to the cold atmosphere, it freezes in consecu-tive laminar layers and may cover larger areas. The thickness of each layer is dependent on the rate of flow and intensity of cold. It is not uncommon to find river ice built up, in this manner, to thicknesses as high as 20 feet. It may submerge high-way bridges and culverts as well as form obstructions at other locations to impede river performance in the following spring ... :,''

" ... Four measures to eliminate the cause of (icing) formation have met with success in varying degrees and are enumerated as follows: 1) Draining the site of icing or diverting the flow of water which feeds the icing. 2) Construction of frost belts, fences, and barriers. These cause the fields of icing to form upstream and away from the area that is to be protected •. 3) Deepening and straightening river channels. This, to be effective, must provide sufficient channel cross section below the depth of winter freeze to carry the stream discharge in winter. 4) Insulating stream channels.

''Although drainage is a basic active measure against the formation of icings, it is difficult, except in the case of springs, to maintain adequate facilities. If the ground is composed of fine silt, drainage channels will erode badly. : Ground-water flow except from springs is usually of such a small magnitude that it freezes rapidly, necessitating insulation of conduits. : .••

" ... : Frost belts or dams consist of a specially constructed ditch, the object of which is not to drain the water but to cause an early freezing of the active layer at a point which is sufficiently removed so that the induced icing will not damage the protected area ... : •. To be effective, a frost belt should be constructed early in

47


the winter before the first snqwfall, preferably before the beginning of freezing weather. The snow should be kept off the frost belt until frost has penetrated the entire active layer.: In some cases it is advantageous to add insulation in the form of snow to the adjacent area immediately uphill from the frost belt to encourage percolation at this point •.•• :.::In cases of large discharge, it may be necessary to add to the height of a frost dam by building fences or barriers on top of it. : .. :.:: Frost belts cannot be looked upon as a permanent protective measure, as in summer accel-erated thaw in this area can be expected. In a few years the permafrost table will degrade below the depth to which frost will penetrate in the winter and thereby leave sufficient space below the frost dam in which ground water can percolate. :

" ••• About the only protective measure (for river icings) that has thus far been developed is the protection provided by deepening and straightening. : This is not a permanent solution, as channels of a braided stream shift often in transverse position. : Protection by means of channel improvement would be a continuous and very expensive maintenance problem.

·'Inadequate snow cover causes stream beds beneath bridges to freeze earlier and more intensely than adjacent river sections. : This commonly results in severe icings at the bridge site •. In many cases the most rational and economical protective measure is to insulate the river channel near and under the bridge. : Insulation can be provided in a number of ways. Some of these are briefly discussed.

"1) Insulation cover. : The insulation cover consists of two layers, the lower composed of logs, branches, and brush •. The upper layer is untamped snow about 1.5 feet thick. : Peat or moss may be substituted for the insulating material •. The cover should be installed in the fall of the year and extend across the entire width and length of the bridge, as well as considerable distances both upstream and down-stream from the bridge site. It is quite an expensive maintenance undertaking, and the installation is not permanent. To be effective, the cover must be close to the area which it is supposed to insulate. It is therefore located below springtime flood heights.

"2) Ice crust method. : Small streams and ditches can be insulated by a layer of air formed under an ice crust. : The channel is temporarily dammed and the water allowed to freeze at a predetermined level. : After this process is complete, the dam is removed and the water level lowered. An intervening air layer from 10 to 15 inches thick is sufficient to prevent freezing of flowing water.

"3) Snow fence method. In some regions it is possible to create sufficient insula-tion by the use of snow fences. These are erected along the length of the channel in such a way that the snow is deposited over the stream ice. : Obviously this is not effective unless the section of channel is normal to the direction of prevailing wind.':'

SUMGIN, M.I. (1941) Icings and icing mounds. (Naledi i nalednye bugry.): Priroda, vol. ~o. po. 1, p. 26-33.

An icing is considered a mass of surface ice formed by successive freezing of seepage from the ground, river, or spring.: The landscape of a permafrost region may be grouped into micro- and mezorelief features. Microrelief includes frost blisters, mounds, and spot medallions of varied duration. : Icing mounds, formed on rivers and on the ground, and certain peat mounds are considered mezorelief features. : These terrain characteristics are described in detail and a theory of their origin is presented. From SIP U3013.


SUMGIN, M.I.; KACHURIN, S.P.; TOLSTIKHIN, N.I. AND TUMEL', V.F. (1940) General permafrostology. (Obshchee merzlotovedenie.) Moscow - Leningrad: Akademiia Nauk SSSR, 340 p. Translated by E.A. Golomshtok and W. Mandel, Stefansson Library, for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment, 1949 (USA CRREL files).

Control measures mentioned are shifting routes, deflection of icing waters by ditches or embankments, drainage, and frost belts •. It is emphasized that no.measure against icing will be satisfactory without care and maintenance.

TABER, STEPHEN (1943) Perennially frozen ground in Alaska: its origin and his-tory. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, vol. 54, p. 1433-1548, Oct l;:

Stream icings commonly form where streams abruptly spread out over gravelly beds and become shallow, and also below points where streams emerge from under a protective screen of vegetation, or from under glaciers.: Stream icing results from the stream becoming frozen through to the bed.

TABER, STEPHEN (1943) Some problems or road construction and maintenance in Alaska. Public Roads, vol. 23, p. (247-251, July-Aug-Sept. :

Icings on streams and rivers are distinguished from ground icings, which occur chiefly near the bases of steep slopes with southerly exposures. In a case near McKinley Park, a metal culvert was blamed by the author for contributing to an icing by rapidly conducting away heat and hastening freezing. He suggested use of a wood culvert with a steep slope, extending well up into the natural vegetation, to protect the water from rapid cooling while it is flowing quickly under the road.

TARBEYEV, A.P. (1966) Icings on the Zavitai-Burei Section. (Naledi na uchastke Zavitaia-Bureya.) Komitet po zemlianomu polotnu. Bor'ba s nalediami n·a zheleznykh i avtomobil'nykh dorogakh, no. 'J, p. 11-13. Moscow: Transport. T~anslated for USA CRREL, 1969, by U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, FSTC-HT-23-555-68.

An icing problem is described in a gently rolling swampy area. Water seeping from cut faces, plus springs originating at the base of knolls 50 to 200 m from the railroad track, form an extensive ice field which.envelops the right of way as the

49

icing surface rises. Formerly, passive measures of control were used, such as temporary fences along the track, made from ties and boards or snow and ice. How-ever, these had limited success. : Culvert openings were closed to prevent their being filled with ice, and water was made to pass beneath bridges through artificially-thawed channels •. Frost mounds disturbed the track grade, and icing mounds developed near fill sections; these had to be punctured to prevent their explosive rupture.

From 1951 to 1958, a comprehensive system of subsurface drainage pipes was conceived, designed, and constructed. As a result, icing was entirely eliminated. The design of such systems is determined by the depth at which an impermeable layer (generally permafrost) lies, the local terrain, and the desire to provide the conveyances with the maximmn permissible slopes •.

Such systems have been in use for 15 years and are the most effective and dependable method for eliminating spring and groundwater icing. :


TARGULIAN, IU.O. (1961) Man-made structures on streams with icing. (Iskusstvennye sooruzheniia na vodotokakh. s nalediami.): Moscow: Avtotransizdat, 80 p. : Translation for USA CRREL, titled Man-made structures on wat~r courses with icing and ice buildup, 1967 •.

Icing fonns when frost penetration forms obstacles in the path of surface, infra-bed, and groundwater flow. Icing is particularly intensive where impermeable layers exist at shallow depth in the ground. Icing is more prevalent on south-facing slopes, since the active layer is thicker and small groundwater flows are preserved longer. M.I. !3umgin is referred to as having said that ground icing is an offspring and constant companion of roads.

Heating culverts throughout the winter with portable stoves is done in the Soviet Union, in the vicinities of towns and villages. Cases are cited where inefficient anti-icing measures are used through lack of knowledge or understanding of local conditions.

Longer spans and the related larger openings of bridges have a twofold effect in reducing icing problems: First, such structures cause less obstruction to the flow present in the "infra-bed talik" (ground-water flow in unfrozen alluvial bed material), such that less ice-forming water is forced to break out to the surface and cause icing. Second, the larger openings offer more cross-sectional area for what-ever icing does form, and the greater width implies less rapid vertical growth of icings.: Spans of 8 to 12 mare claimed to be very effective. However, no specific mention is made of the sizes of the streams or of the magnitude of the flows involved. : Trestle-type bridges without massive foundations are recommended over bridges with large pier bases and abutments, which cause a reduction in area available for infra-bed flow •.

The choice reduces to one of engineering economics, weighing a conventional drainage structure, anti-icing devices, and anti-icing maintenance work against long trestle bridges with pile supports, without any anti-icing structures and little or no required anti-icing maintenance.

' TAYLOR, I.P. (1939) Road maintenance in Alaska. Pacific Builder and Engineer, vol. 45, no. 31, p. 36, Aug 5.

Road icings have been prevented in some cases by the use of blind drains, but this is not al ways practical or economical. : Ice-filled culverts are opened with steam. : A small passage is made, and the flowing water clears out the rest of the ice. : Stream icings are trenched to concentrate the early spring flow, and this creates a larger channel in the ice.

THOMSON, S. (1966) Icings on the Alaska Highway. Proceedings, International Conference on Permafrost, 11-15 November 1963, Lafayette, Indiana. Washington: National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, p. :526-529.

Air temperature and the slope of the ground initially, and later the slope of the ice surface, as well as the local topography, appear to control the rate and manner of growth of an icing for a given water supply. : Icings appear to be more active with colder weather.

Three types of icing are recognized:

1. Icings resulting from water of rivers and streams. :


2. Icings resulting from seepage forced to the surface by an underlying impermeable stratum which may be permafrost.

3. Icings resulting from perennial seepage that issues from the ground or a side hill.:

With reference to the first type of icing, freezing down to the bed of a stream may· occur at abrupt changes of channel cross section from narrow to wide, or abrupt flattening of the stream gradient. : The insulating cover of a stream is often lost when a stream issues from the bush and flows across the cleared road verges. In the second type of icing, the frost penetration below a road usually causes the damming of the flow in the unfrozen permeable layer. : Upslope, the natural snow cover, vegetation, and organic soil insulate the ground to maintain an unfrozen layer through which water may seep. In the third type of icing, hydrostatic pressure is large enough to prevent the seepage sources from being sealed by freezing.

Passive measures for the control of icing are considered to,.be those adopted to reduce the hazard to driving which is presented by icing. These include 1) steam-ing, 2) ice fences of cloth, etc.,: 3) blasting, 4) grading of accumulated ice, and 5) fire pots.

Active measures are considered to be those taken with the aim of eliminating or significantly reducing the icing or preventing its encroachment on the road. : These include 1) drainage, 2) frost belts, 3) ponding areas, 4) grade raises, 5) road location, 6) culverts, and 7) channel corrections. : With respect to culverts, it is recommended to install oversize culverts on steep gradients and as deep in the ground as possible. : In addition, hessian cloth may be hung over the ends of culverts to pre-vent ice from forming within them.

It is emphasized that each icing is an individual problem, and the solutions should be made, indeed can only be made, on an individual basis •

..,OLSTIKHIN, N.I. (1938) Instruction for the study of surface ice. (Instruktsiia po izucheniiu naledei.): In Sbornik instruktsii i programmnykll ukazanii po izuclleniiu merzlykll gruntov i veclmoi merzloty. Moscow-Leningrad: Akademiia Nauk SSSR, p. '.73-84.

Icings are sheets of ice formed by the freezing of river water or groundwater that is poured out over the surface of river ice, the ground, or formed within the active layer. The water pours out when the surface-water channel or groundwater freezes. Icings are classified in three categories: 1) those produced by river water, 2) those produced by groundwater, and 3) a combination of the two. Studies of icings are conducted by assigning numbers to the icings for plotting their loca-tions on maps, and by a systematic recording of descriptive data. Icings formed from groundwater may be classified as those originating from suprapermafrost water and those originating from subpermafrost water. For groundwater icings data should be collected on the origin of the water and stratification of the water-bearing layers. : Study of river icings requires data on profile, volume and velocity of the river, character of the riverbed, and hydrologic regime of the river. : The study should con-sider the effects of buildings, ditches, roads, and bridges on the formation of icings. : From SIP U1993 and WSP 1792.

TOLSTIKHIN, N.I. (1939) Schematic classification of ground waters in the perma-frost region. 1 p. (typed manuscript in USA CRREL files).

51


This table classifies water into four categories: freezing through, supraperma-frost, intrapermafrost, and subpermafrost. : Each is described as to type, type of formations in which primarily found, phase, temperature, pressure, relation to the average level of hydrographical networks, region of feeding and distribution, quality, possible utilization, methods of capping or retaining, basic fonn of source, icing, and other manifestations. From SIP U4492.

The portions of the table relative to icing are reproduced below:

Waters category

Freezing through

Suprapennafrost

Intrapermafrost

Subpermafrost

Water type

Seasonally freezing through

Half-freezing Not freezing through

Constantly liquid (a) Fed by suprapermafrost

layer (b) Fed by subpermafrost

layer Constantly solid, fossil ice, etc. ·

Located near the frozen zone: alluvial, in layers, in crevices, karst type Deep: layer, crevice, karst, crevice-vein type

Icing type

Small, "dry," which finish their formation during the first half of the winter

Average size, forming during the whole winter

(a) Average in size

(b) See below, the icings of subpermafrost waters

Icings do not appear

Of average and large size, usually forming throughout the winter. The largest icings of subpennafrost waters are associated with th.e karst subpermafrost waters and the waters of tectonic cracks

TOLSTIKHIN, N.I. AND OBIDIN, N.I. (1936) Icing or the Eastern Zabaikal. (Naledi Vostochnogo Zabaikal'ia.). Izvestiia Gosudarstvennogo Geograficheskogo Obshchestva, vol. 68, no. 6, p. 844-877. The following translation is possibly, though not definitely, the same item: Tolstekhin, N.E. and Obiden, N.E. , Transudation of water to the ice surface in the East Baykal area. Soviet Geological Society, 1936. Translated from Russian to Japanese by South Manchurian Railway Co.,: 1939; translated from Japanese to English (detailed summary) by HQ, 500th Military Intelligence Group, APO 613, Doc. No. 38174, 24 p., 15 April 1948. The following abstract is based on the English translation.

Icing mounds form where the water freezes last, and they tend to be aligned with the subterranean flow path. : In East Baykal, most icings appear to be fed by springs of subpennafrost water, rather than suprapennafrost water. The color of icing ice has been observed to be transparent, or yellow (due to iron sulfide), or bluish. Icings caused by suprapermafrost water were small (less than 40 m2) and mostly dry. :Prior to the appearance of such icing, a bulge generally appears in the ground surface, sometime in the two months from December to February. ·


TOLSTIKHIN, N.I.; VEL'MINA, N.A. AND EFIMOV, A.I. (1963) The hydrogeology of the permafrost area in the USSR. (Gidrogeologiia oblasti mnogoletnemerzlykh porod Sovetskogo Soiuza.) In Doklady na Mezhdunarodnoi konferentssi po merzlotovedeniiu.: Moscow: Izd-vo Akad. j'Jauk SSSR.,: p. 158-166. Translation · available in USA CRREL files, entitled Hydrogeology in the permafrost zones of USSR, 1963, 20 p. Slightly modified translation, Hydrogeology in permafrost regions of the USSR. Proceedings, International Conference on Permafrost, 11-15 November 1963, Lafayette, Indiana; National Academy of Science& - National Research Council, p. 458-461, 1966. The following is taken from the slightly modified translation.

"The subaqueous type of ground-water discharge is characteristic of valleys in all regions. In this case, polynyas, i.e.,: nonfreezing sections of a river with open water, are formed in winter. ·Even when the discharge of subaqueous springs is small and there is a thick series of deposits, the ground water can drain under the river ice or penetrate into alluvium. If the combination of surrounding conditions does not favor preservation of under-river bed flow (thin layer of alluvium, low air tempera-tures, etc.), ground water will flow onto the surface of the river ice or bank (when ground-water discharge occurs on the valley slope), forming icings. Thus, many subaqueous discharges of ground water, hidden by a layer of river water in summer, are revealed in winter. : Ground-water discharge in mountainous regions also occurs at the contacts of rocks of different ages, composition, and permeability.

" ... Valleys composed of fissured bedrock and under-river bed alluvium freezing in winter are characterized only by temporary seasonal springs that supply the icings at the very beginning of winter (October to November)."

U.S. ARMY (1948) Roads and highways in Alaska, Part I, The spring thaw. 925th Engineer Aviation Group, Fort Richardson, Alaska, 30 June.

During extremely cold winters, surface icings formed from springs or seepages cause less trouble than icings which have as their sources rivers or large streams .. During mild winters, the reverse is true. Early snowfall usually prevents trouble with icings. : Icings are formed by water moving under moss or snow which flows out to a cleared area such as a roadway or airport, and then freezes. : Additional flow causes the icings to reach considerable thicknesses. : Methods used to combat icings include frost belts, ice fences (snow fence faced with canvas), and fire pots at the upst_ream ends of culverts and small bridges. :

U.S. ARMY, DEPARTMENTS OF THE ARMY AND THE Affi FORCE (1965) Surface drainage design for airfields and heliports in Arctic and subarctic regions. Arctic and subarctic construction. Dept. of the Army Technical Manual TM 5-852-7, Dept. of the Air Force Manual AFM 88-19, Chapter 7; August 1965. (Supersedes TM 5-852-7, Dec 1954, previously designated as both Engineering manual for military construction, Part XV, Chapter 7, and Corps of Engineers manual EM 1110-345-376.).

River icings are attributed to flow constrictions in braided streams, those streams being characterized by shallow depths and small winter flows. Ground icings are claimed to be not very likely to occur in the Arctic, due to the fact that permafrost is so close to the surface that very little water can be stored in the active layer. In the southern zones of the subarctic and on south-facing slopes, ground icing occurrence is most severe. It is not essential to the icing process that seasonal frost reach permafrost, though this condition makes icing most severe. Partial freezing of the

53


active layer reduces the cross-sectional area available to groundwater now, and the easiest route for the water may be out onto the surface. : Spring icings are attributed to subpermafrost, often artesian, water. ·

Preventive measures are as follows:

River icing

Insulation of streambeds - refers to Chekotillo, 1940 (detailed English abstract in ACFEL TR 19, Part II) for methods.

(Frost belts are not recommended due to great depths to permafrost and large discharges.):

Ground icing

Drainage systems

Ponding areas

Frost belts, both seasonal and permanent and

Ice fences and barriers.

Spring icing

Insulated conduits

Subsurface drainage and

Insulated channels.

U.S. NAVY, BUREAU OF YARDS AND DOCKS (1955) Arctic engineering. Technical Publication NAVDOCKS 'l'P-Pw-11, 464 p.,: March 15.

Deep, narrow, or egg-shaped culvert sections are recommended to provide less water surface area and greater depth for a given now (compared to a round culvert) and thus be slightly less likely to freeze to the bottom. Permanent steam pipes and the practice of using stacked culverts (one culvert above another in a fill section) are mentioned. French drains are recommended to improve the permeability of ground in the active layer. : This is applicable to locations where reduced permeability or deep frost penetration tend to block the movement of suprapermafrost groundwater, giving rise to the movement of water to the ground surface and consequent icing. Icings tend to be more severe on south-facing slopes than on north-facing slopes, since on the south slopes the flow of groundwater is more prolonged, while on north slopes there is often more complete freezing.

Suggested icing control measures include: diversion of icing water near its source and leading the water away in ditches that are either deep and narrow or covered; frost belts; and ice fences. : In the case of roads and bridges encountering rivers subject to icing, the only advice is to build at high grades. :

WILLIAMS, G.A. (1943) Winter-maintenance problems on the Alaska Highway. Roads and Bridges, vol. 81, no. 11, p. 27-30, 58, 63.

Between Watson Lake and the Alaska border, 250 icing problem areas existed in the 1942-1943 winter.: East of the continental divide, icing was no problem due to low average precipitation (13 in.):. Massive clear ice is present in the soil, and it is said that springs now from this ground ice during summer and winter. This now


causes icings which fill culverts and ditches and overflow the road. Continued flow leads to huge mounds of honeycombed ice (termed mushroom ice, so-called due to their similarity to mushrooms). A possible explanation for now continuing in winter is the pressure of overburden on ground ice working to lower the melting point, so that the ice bodies melt at their contact with bedrock.

Steam generators were used in the never-ending task of clearing culverts and ditches of ice. Oil drums filled with fuel oil and allowed to burn at the culverts were used, but this proved impractical. Hand labor using picks and shovels could not keep up with the problems. Sand and gravel were sprinkled over the top of icings to allow vehicles. to travel slowly but with some traction •.

Swift rivers freeze from the bottom up, raising the beds and making the rivers overflow. ·An ice-filled valley bottom results with ice over 20 ft above the original stream surface. This action submerges bridges in ice, and the only remedy was to rebuild at higher grade,

The honeycombed icing ice would not support vehicles, and trucks broke through, becoming frozen in until spring. To overcome this situation, crossings were cordup royed with logs or timb.er, and water was poured on to form a solid sheet of ice and provide a firm roadbed.

WILLIAMS, J.R. (1953) Icings in Alaska, 1949-1950. Engineering Notes No. 32, U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Engineer Intelligence Division, 23 p.

Most observed icings were in hilly to mountainous terrain. · Icings were seldom greater than a few acres in area; many were seepage icings limited to road cuts. · The seepage icings ranged in size from 20 fo 1000 ft along the road. River icing is com-mon to streams with broad, braided channels. Maximum icing thickness observed along roads was 5 ft; along rivers it was 10 ft. ·Groundwater under pressure may come to the surface through cracks in the seasonal frost layer, or along tree roots. · On emergence, the water begins to freeze and becomes a viscous mixture of ice crystals and water. A yellow-brown tint is sometimes given to the water-ice mixture, . due to humic substances from the vegetative material. After freezing, white ice is formed, so color distinguishes active from inactive icing in some cases.

Suggested methods of icing control:

Active methods

Frost belts upstream from the road, and

Use of ditches, drains, dams, excavations, and ponds to lead water away from the road and let it freeze harmlessly.

Passive methods

Scraping ice from the road (using grader, dozer, ice chisels)

Blasting

Thawing with steam or fire pots

Erecting cloth or metal ice fences

Cutting drainage channels across icings and

Using larger or more culverts, raising road grade, or relocating road. ·

55


WILLIAMS, J.R. (1953) Observation on river-ice conditions near highway bridges in Alaska, winter 1949-1950. Engineering Notes No. 30, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Intelligence Division, 40 p.

"Braided rivers are characterized by thick ice which is built by freezing of repeated overflows of water on the ice surface. : Constriction of the channel by freezing impounds water above the constriction. Impounded water under hydrostatic pressure cracks the ice and nows through the cracks over the ice surface. : Freezing of these overflows builds ice as thick as 10 feet on braided streams." (p. 1) Layered ice, meaning ice layers with intervening layers or lenses of water (or air), is com-monly found in overflow icings. Specific streams mentioned to experience overflow icing are the Tazlina, Chistochina, Chisana, Robertson, Gerstle, Little Gerstle, and Johnson.

It is mentioned that thick snow near the edge of a stream's ice cover tends to insulate' the ice cover there, and prevent the formation or at least the thickening of the ice during cold weather. Thus "Snow drifts along river banks are dangerous because they insulate underlying ice and permit thaw by moving water beneath the ice.':' (p. 18)

It was noted that on 22 February 1950, the Tok River at the Glenn Highway was open, while almost all other open water in the Tanana Valley had frozen over during an early February cold wave. At the Alaska Highway crossing, about 25 miles down-stream, the stream was dry with thin ice and snow present in the channel. This condition existed in December as well as in February.: Evidently the flow sinks into the gravel of the Tok alluvial fan, and appears as seepage out of the banks of the Tanana River. ·

YOUNG, R.H. (1951) Maintenance and reconstruction problems on the Northwest High-way System. Roads and Engineering Construction, vol. 89, no. 11, p. :118, 140, 142.

This Canadian article mentions the following techniques for combating icings:

Channeling streams into deep and narrow ditches and through deep culverts

Inducing icings to form at some distance from the road

Building up road grades to increase ponding areas

Covering the lower ends of culverts

Using fire pots with waste oil for fuel

Using chemicals such as calcium chloride

Installing perforated steam pipes and using mobile steam generators, and

Building ice fences with sacking or canvas facing. :

ZARUBIN, N.E. (1960) On the e((ectlveness of several naled countermeasures. (O tselesoobraznosti nekotorykh protivonalednykh meropriiatii i ustroistv .) Transportnoe Stroitel'stvo, vol. 10, no. 2, p. 45, Feb.

The countermeasures presently employed against icing formation along railroad rights-of-way are reviewed and evaluated. These include: 1) encouraging the drain-ing of areas by deepening, narrowing, and straightening natural water channels,


digging open ditches, and constructing closed drains; 2) using frost belts; 3) placing impermeable membranes in the ground; 4) constructing earth dikes; 5) widening excavations and building permanent barriers or fences with logs to create basins in which to contain icings; and 6) placing warming pans deep in the ground. All of these measures, while they may succeed in controlling icing formation in winter, fail to protect the roadbeds from saturation by icing meltwater in spring. Closed drain construction appears to be the most effective countermeasure where both these problems are concerned, while induced icings are the least effective. From SIP 19794 and examination of original. •

57

Unclassified 59 Securitv Claa•Hlcatlon

DOCUMENT CONTROL DAT A • R & D (S•curltr claulflcallon of 1111•, body of abelracl and /ndu/nl. •nolat/• -•I ba ent....i ,.11.,. lh• oftra// ,._I I• cl•••lllMI

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ICING OCCURRENCE, CONTROL, AND PREVENTION. An Annotated Bibliography -

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'1· SUPP'L•MKNTAftY NOTE• Co-sponsored by State 12. aPOH80fllllHO MILITAftY ACTIVITY

bf Alaska Dept. of Highways with funding b~ u. s. Army Cold Regions Research and ~he u. s. Dept. of Transportation, Federal Engineering Laboratory Hi11:hwav Administration Bureau of Public Hanover New Hamoshire 03755 11. Aa9T,.ACT Roads.

Icings present severe problems for highways, railroads, airfields, and structuren. Details· of icing processes, and past and present practices of icing prevention and control, are given in annotations for 93 of 94 bibliographic entries. The entries were selected from over 200 references examined through March 1968. Of the 94 entries, 51 are from the Soviet Union, 37 from the United States, and 6 from Canada. Fourteen recent Russian papers were translated specifically for this study.

14. Key Wo:rds:

Ice control Ice formation Ice prevention T rafficability

DD ,'.!': .. 1473 M I AH ••,WHICH le Unclassified LCUrtty Clenllicatioa