City changes road-clearing recipe: salt comes first

By Mark BrettWednesday, November 29, 2006, http://www.pentictonherald.ca/article_2515.php
It's the perfect solution.A 23 per cent dilution of rock salt applied as a liquid to roads before a winter storm is being hailed as an efficient and environmentally-friendly way to combat snow and ice."I think it is going to be substantially more effective," said Todd Mizuik, City of Penticton public works superintendent. "One of the things we haven't had is a philosophy of is pre-treating our roads. "It's the same salt that we've been using for a hundred years we're just diluting it to a quarter of the concentration, so in essence we're putting down the right amount of salt for the conditions of the road."The traditional method used sand and a three per cent salt mixture, usually applied after the snow or ice was already on the road.Unfortunately about 30 per cent of the dry mixture either bounces or blows off the roadway which makes the procedure not only inefficient but has a negative impact on the environment."This will keep the bond of ice from forming on the road," said Mizuik. "The snow pack we're seeing today would probably not have existed had this been up and running a couple of weeks ago but we were just held hostage by our suppliers."He expects the service to be in operation by the middle of next week. The superintendent admitted it's taken a bit of work to convince the powers that be that this new method is the way of the future."The transition people have to wrap their brains around is that salt needs to absorb a certain amount of moisture and dilute itself before it starts to work," he said. "You can get more for less; you just have to look outside the box a bit."The philosophy around efficiency and also saving money comes between trying to fight the weather from bottom down or from the top up."With the salt already on the road when the storm hits, as the ploughs scrape the road instead of creating the snow pack the blades actually go through to the asphalt, cleaning it off entirely."Even if it dries, when the moisture reacts with that bit of dry salt it starts to dilute it again and it's ready to rumble and that barrier does not form on your road," said Mizuik.It is especially effective in areas like the Okanagan where the predictability of winter storms is much better, making pre-treatment the preferred method.Because limited modification of existing equipment is required the cost is relatively inexpensive to implement the system, about $70,000.The brine solution to be used is currently brewing in a small covered station at the municipal works yard and when the large vat is filled it will have enough to cover the application needs for three storms.Under the current city snow removal policy priorities were established to provide the greatest benefit to the majority of the travelling public.One the number one priority schedule are the major collector routes, steep grades, roads serving emergency routes (hospital and fire routes) and major transit routes.Priority two includes the remainder the collector routes, main industrial roads, school zones and minor transit routes.The remainder of city streets and other municipal properties such as pedestrian bridges, stairs, transit stops with shelters parking lots and the areas around municipally-owned buildings