AFCEC 'iceman' helps Florida highway officials

  • Published
  • By Teresa Hood
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  When Winter Storm Leon hit the Florida panhandle in late January, an Air Force snow and ice control expert happened to be among the  more than 1.4 million residents affected by the resulting closed roads and bridges.

Preston "Benny" Benedyk, from the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, reached out to the local Florida Department of Transportation, offering his expertise to aid its response to future severe winter storms.

"The FDOT is trying to be proactive to avoid being reactive," said Benedyk. "AFCEC and the Air Force are part of the local community. We have the ability and the responsibility, I believe, to work with them and pass on our knowledge."

As the vehicle program manager at AFCEC's Tyndall Detachment, Benedyk works at one of the three major Air Forces bases in Northwest Florida shut down for two days because of icy road and bridge conditions. The others were Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field.

Benedyk is a certified equipment manager and oversees the procurement of all civil engineer vehicles except those for firefighting. He is also a subject matter expert in snow and ice control on roadways and airfields, with more than 30 years of combined experience as a military and civilian CE. At AFCEC, he advises installations on snow and ice control procedures and products, snow removal equipment and related safety guidelines and federal standards.

"I met with experts from the FDOT's District Three, including their chief of safety and top engineer for roads and bridges just last week," he said. "I made recommendations on types of products and equipment to control icing on bridges and roads, as well as application rates, and the amount they would need. They said my numbers were spot-on with those of the Minnesota DOT, which is also advising them."

The FDOT's District Three encompasses 16 counties, 6,464 miles of highways and 784 bridges. Winter Storm Leon shut down about 230 miles of Interstate 10, Northwest Florida's largest traffic artery, said Ian Satter, the district's spokesperson. When freezing temperatures began moving into the area on Jan. 28, highway officials were forced to start closing bridges.

"Driving over bridges after conditions allowed, I saw where sand had been applied," said Benedyk. "Sand helps with sliding but doesn't prevent freezing, so it's not the best control option. In the Air Force, our first line of defense for our runways and roads is anti-icing products, primarily potassium acetate and sodium acetate."

The term "anti-icing" means they prevent ice formation. Applied as a liquid, potassium acetate works by lowering the freezing point of the pavement down to 22 degrees Fahrenheit rather than the normal 35 degrees. On runways, it acts like a shield to stop ice from creating a bond to the pavement, which prevents slippery conditions. Sodium acetate is applied as a granular solid and lowers the freezing temperature of water, including wet precipitation.

Both products are environmentally friendly and bio-degradable, an important concern, said Benedyk.

"We deal with this on a regular basis in the Air Force," he said. "Even in an average weather year, civil engineers at our 'Northern Tier' bases manage a huge amount of snow and ice. I felt we had a lot to offer in terms of knowledge and experience."

The FDOT announced on March 18 their purchase of five snow plow attachments and 10 salt spreaders that will attach to already-owned dump trucks, as well as 42 tons of salt and 4,400 gallons of potassium acetate.

Come the rare snow and ice to Florida, the Sunshine State is now better prepared. Benedyk said hopes he and the Air Force played a helping hand. (J.T. Denney, AFCEC Public Affairs intern, contributed to this story).