Enhanced Road Safety Through Advanced Snowdrift Modeling

4DM Snowdrift Analysis Process

Drifting snow can reduce visibility to treacherous levels, trigger ice formation and result in a loss of vehicle control. Other consequences of snowdrifting include pavement damage and increased snow clearing costs.

4DM offers an end-to-end snowdrift analysis and management solution. We collect and use meteorological and spatial data, analyze collision statistics, and make field observations to derive snow transport processes and assess snowdrift potentials.

We then assess various mitigation scenarios and rank them based on their snow retention efficiency and cost effectiveness. Our comprehensive analytical toolkit, including powerful visualization capabilities, gives us the ability to assess the impact of various possible solutions such as snow fences and trees or hedge plantings and to devise the best methods of implementation (e.g. locations, orientation, height, etc.).

4DM can help you find the best solution to your snowdrift problems.


Sample Projects

Ontario Ministry of Transportation

  • Highway 401: Winter climate study including snowdrifting, microclimate and collision analyses
  • Highway 404: Advanced snowdrift analysis and modeling in support of detailed design of highway extension
  • Highway 400:  Snowdrift analysis and mitigation in support of highway widening project
  • Highway 115: Operational review involving snowdrift analysis and mitigation
  • Highway 7/8: Transportation corridor study
  • Highway 26: Regional snow transport modeling for routing bypass
  • Hwy 6: Forensic snowdrift modeling and analysis

IRAP-National Research Council Canada

  • R&D initiative led to more versatile and reliable snow transport  simulations, including upgraded topographic modeling component