Data for “Intra- and inter-site variability of soil contamination in road shoulders – Implications for maintenance operations”

For each distance, a composite sample was formed from 6 evenly spaced points along a transect parallel to the road. The targeted depth corresponded to the upper 5 centimeters, however in some cases the presence of the road sub-base only allowed the collection of a surface sample (0-2 cm). All samples were analyzed for metals, whereas only two samples from each site could be analyzed for PAHs due to cost constraints: it was chosen to retain (i) a composite sample formed by merging subsamples collected at 0 and 0.3 m, and (ii) a sample collected on the opposite side from the road.

Further details are provided in the appended file entitled “Data description”. The other files present: • Site characteristics: site index (number from 1 to 40 and official French nomenclature), GPS coordinates of the site, annual average daily traffic, truck fraction. • Metals and PAHs: site index, sampling distance, concentrations of each individual substance analyzed in the corresponding sample. The results are presented and discussed in the following research article: D. Tedoldi, R. Charafeddine, P. Branchu, E. Thomas, M.-C. Gromaire (2021) Intra- and inter-site variability of soil contamination in road shoulders – Implications for maintenance operations.

Science of the Total Environment.