Snow / Ice Removal Chemicals
The city of St. Cloud and county of Anoka in Minnesota were both looking to enhance the performance of their salt brine operations. In 2015, St. Cloud used over 81,000 gal of salt brine and purchased 2,290 tons of salt. Anoka County is responsible for maintaining and clearing snow and ice from 423...
Researchers from Drexel University, Purdue University and Oregon State University have discovered that adding paraffin oil to the mix for road concrete can give it the ability to melt ice and snow when temperatures fall.
Image: Drexel University
Drexel University researchers have recently made a discovery that could create roads that deice themselves during winter storms. The secret? Adding a little paraffin wax to the road's concrete mix.
In a paper published for the journal Cement and Concrete Composites, researchers, led by Yaghoob...
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has announced plans to begin using rock salt to augment its use of magnesium chloride solution for ice and snow control on roads across the state.
Specific problem areas, such as steep hills, will get the rock salt to speed melting and improve...
Workers in Wisconsin load the briner maker.
A few years ago, the City of Wauwatosa implemented a brine program for anti-icing and pre-wetting salt. As a pilot program, city officials were cautious when it came to investing in the upfront costs for an in-house brine maker without first seeing the results. Rather than batch their own brine,...
The deicer flows freely without clumping.
While it may encompass just 25 lane miles, Rutland Township takes its winter maintenance responsibilities seriously. That’s why Jay Schultz, highway commissioner for the western Chicago suburb, made finding the right road deicer a top priority.
“I’ve tried spraying salt with calcium chloride, I’...
Photo courtesy of the Virginia DOT.
During the winter season the state of Vermont becomes a playground drawing people from across the country to enjoy activities such as skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling. Unfortunately, the very same snow and ice that creates a winter wonderland in the mountains also creates a winter gauntlet on...
Article
October 23, 2008
Road salts and deicing chemicals are usually used for deicing and ice removal. However, infrastructure deterioration and groundwater contamination are the main drawbacks for using deicing chemicals. Other methods, such as heating the bridge deck using embedded cables, heated fluids, infrared heat...
Article
April 09, 2007
Remember in school when you were taught in civics class on how a bill becomes a law? And then, later, you learned, just as you did about Santa Claus, that the truth is a bit different. Your sophisticated upper-grade teachers cynically equated making laws to making sausage, advising you to enjoy the...
Article
October 18, 2004
The U.S. spent approximately $1.5 billion in direct costs and $5 billion in indirect costs on roadway snow and ice control in 1997 alone. The direct costs arose from such maintenance activities as plowing, salting and sanding road surfaces. The higher indirect costs stemmed from accidents, travel...
Article
January 04, 2002
For the melting of snow and ice from roadways, drives, walks
and entrances to private and public buildings the use of chemicals has become a
common practice. The basic objective is to achieve safe surfaces in the
shortest time with the minimum cost.
There are several chemicals available on the...
Sedgwick County, Kan., understands the benefits that come from pre-wetting salt in severely cold temperatures. Under such extreme winter conditions, the county previously used straight calcium chloride as a pre-treatment, but was beginning to discover it wasn’t the most economical choice.
“When...
Case Studies
After trying a test load of enhanced 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.
It didn’t take long for Green and Woodstock to become loyal to...
Geisinger Medical Center used salt to treat icy winter roadways, sidewalks and parking lots at the facility’s 10 Pennsylvania campuses. With a responsibility of ensuring the safety of 6,000 employees and thousands of patients and visitors, the medical center headquartered in Danville was running...
The town of Pittsford, Vt., had experienced some challenges when it came to applying salt on their icy winter roadways. Issues like clumping and caking often left operators chipping away at blocks of salt that would develop in the hopper and truck bodies. While necessary, these tasks often proved...
Saving costs, reducing labor and effectively anti-icing winter roadways were top concerns for Peters Township, Pa., when the municipality began considering an in-house brine maker for pre-treating roads and pre-wetting salt.
“We read a lot about brine and the long-term, successful results in many...
While it may encompass just 25 lane-miles, Rutland Township takes its winter-maintenance responsibilities seriously. That’s why Jay Schultz, highway commissioner for the western Chicago suburb, made finding the right road deicer a top priority.
“I’ve tried spraying salt with calcium chloride, I’...
Winters can be brutal in Minnesota—especially in heavily populated areas like the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Keeping roads clear of ice and snow is an essential task of public works officials, and Hennepin County has developed an arsenal of winter maintenance tools to help create...
Case Studies
For the last several years, Dan Tobritzhofer had been using straight salt to treat public roadways. When he took a new job with the city of Burnsville, Minn., however, he looked toward his first season using an enhanced deicing product.
“Where I came from we’d been using straight white salt at...
When economic conditions forced the city of Topeka to implement operational restructuring, the street maintenance division took on an entirely new management staff. Many new managers were relatively green when it came to winter maintenance, and to make the transition even more challenging, they...
While the town of Winfield, N.Y., sits a short distance from major thoroughfares, the quiet, upstate village of 2,200 people still sees their fair share of traffic—and their share of icy winter roadways that need to be safe for motorists. The town’s main roads surround the school district, and...
