Did you know that the S-Curve on US-131 has an anti-icing system built into the bridge?  I didn't, so it was a double shock for me when the Michigan Department of Transportation announced that this winter will be the last time that it will run.

When the S-Curve was designed, it included a $1,000,000 "anti-icing" system that employed 170 nozzles along the 1.1 mile stretch of freeway.  The nozzles were designed to shoot liquid on the road to prevent ice from forming and remove ice that has formed.  The system was said to have been successful when road conditions were relatively dry, but had trouble working when the roads were snowy.

The system was added to the freeway when the S-Curve was updated almost 2 decades ago.  The million dollar system will see it's last use this winter because of the large cost to maintain as well as it being considerably cheaper just to run anti-icing trucks over that stretch of highway.

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