A survey of models and algorithms for winter road maintenance. Part III: Vehicle routing and depot location for spreading

Winter road maintenance planning involves a variety of decision-making problems related to the routing of vehicles for spreading chemicals and abrasives, for plowing roadways and sidewalks, for loading snow into trucks, and for transporting snow to disposal sites. These problems are very difficult and site specific because of the diversity of operating conditions influencing the conduct of winter road maintenance operations and the wide variety of operational constraints. As the third of a four-part survey, this paper reviews optimization models and solution algorithms for the routing of vehicles for spreading operations. We also review models for the location of vehicle and materials depots and for the assignment of crews to vehicle depots. The two first parts of the survey address system design problems for winter road maintenance. The fourth part of the survey covers vehicle routing problems for plowing and snow disposal operations. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.