The improvement of pavement heating system has a great impact on transportation in cold regions, such as highway and airport pavements. In the USA, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) invested money in developing new technologies in pavement heating system for runways and taxiways. Geothermal can be one of the efficient energy resource for these engineering needs. The observed advantages of geothermal heating system include: (1) Energy is renewable and reliable; (2) avoid using the chemical treatment; (3) increase the snow removal safety; and (4) lower the CO2 emission. Moreover, by providing a sustainable temperature higher than 32 degrees F, the maintenance cost can be reduced massively due to the frozen-thawed cycles. A few applications have been demonstrated in some countries such as USA, Japan, Switzerland and Poland. However, the effectiveness and limitations of the snow melting system depends on climatic conditions, properties of geomaterials and the heat transfer mechanisms between the heat source and the pavement surface. In the state of North Dakota, the annual snowfall ranges from 26 to 38 inches and the temperatures can be below -20 degrees F for several months. If the limitations can be overcome to increase the effectiveness of snow melting system using geothermal energy, the technique can also be adopted in these areas with the similar climatic conditions. In this paper, three cases of snowmelting design for pavements were reviewed, the snow melting equations using geothermal energy were revisited and the limitations on snow melting system design in ND are discussed. The strategy to increase the effectiveness of a snow melting system using geothermal energy is also addressed.
