After trying a test load of deicer from a local retailer, David Green, superintendent for the city of Woodstock, Vt., was sold on how much faster the product went to work in lower temperatures when compared to rock salt.
Since then, Green and Woodstock have been loyal deicer customers.
“We use the product on everything,” Green said. “We have 65 paved lane-miles, and the enhanced deicer goes on all of them. The big thing for us was the temperature difference. The product worked better at lower temperatures, which is essential in this part of Vermont.”
Previously, Green said the city pretreated their roads with rock salt treated with liquid calcium chloride. “That process added quite a bit of time and a little bit of an expense, which we no longer incur now that we use the enhanced deicer,” he said.
While enjoying the cost savings and functional benefits of the product, called ClearLane from Cargill , Green noted that applying the product is a much quicker and safer process for operators.
“The safety for our drivers is a concern, and with the [deicer], they don’t have to pretreat the truck,” he said. “They are able to just load and go with the product, whereas with the pretreated rock salt, they had to load the salt, then treat it with the calcium chloride while they were outside in icy conditions, which is very unsafe.”
On average, the city of Woodstock spreads about 1,000 tons of the deicer each season, and officials are happy with the results from an economic and roadway safety perspective.
