A new way to keep ice off bridges is being developed in Arlington

When cold, wet weather strikes, icy bridges pose a danger to drivers. One University of Texas at Arlington professor and his team are working to make driving in the winter safer — by de-icing bridges.

Xinbao Yu, an associate professor of civil engineering, said that newer bridges are built in a way that already helps de-icing, but his team is studying how to apply geothermal technology to older bridges.

In their system, water and antifreeze are circulated through tubes that bring thermal energy from the ground to the bridge deck, warming the bridge. Even in the winter, the ground temperature is still close to 60 to 70 degrees, just as it would be in the summer, he said.

To test their work, Yu and his team are using a model bridge deck located between Arlington and Fort Worth.

With this technology, bridges can stay above freezing temperatures and melt any snow that accumulates, he said. The warming temperatures are low enough that the heat won’t affect cars passing over the bridge.

“Really there’s no negative impact at all,” he said.

With a $100,000 grant from the Texas Department of Transportation, Yu and his team are getting to conduct further testing, according to the university.

Yu hopes that eventually this kind of technology will be applied to existing bridges. The next step in his team’s research will be testing the technology on a real bridge.

“We’re really close,” he said.