Self-de-icing LED Signals for Railroads and Highway Intersections

Snow and ice can easily accumulate on the lenses of signal lights and block light to the drivers of vehicles or locomotive engineers. Snow-clogged signal lights can decrease the performance of signalized intersections and railroads and may result in collisions in inclement weather conditions.

The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's NCHRP IDEA Final Report for Project 190: Self-de-icing LED Signals for Railroads and Highway Intersections aims at developing and demonstrating a new type of self-de-icing LED signals for highway and railroad intersections as a replacement for existing LED signal lights that remain too cold to deice or melt snow and could cause accidents in snowy conditions.