BEDFORD – David Flinn, Street Commissioner, explained that as soon as last year’s winter came to a close, the process of preparing for the current winter season began.
“We start planning for the upcoming winter almost immediately after the previous winter ends.” David said, “The material we must use to melt the snow and ice is very corrosive, so it takes a lot of time and effort to thoroughly clean this equipment. We then by early summer look at our inventory of road salt and order our supply for the upcoming winter. We also start training any new drivers on the basics of plowing snow.”
How does road salt work?
According to research found at How Stuff Works.com ice forms when the temperature of water reaches 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and that includes ice on roadways. Road salt lowers the freezing point of water via a process called freezing point depression.
The freezing point of the water is lowered once the salt is added, so the salt makes it more difficult for water to freeze. A 10-percent salt solution freezes at 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and a 20-percent solution freezes at 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
What is the brine for?
The key to salt working is that there has to be at least a tiny bit of water on the road for the freezing point depression to work. That’s why you often see trucks pretreat roads with a brine solution (a mixture of salt and liquid water) when ice and snow are forecast.
If the roads are dry and the DOT simply puts down road salt, it likely won’t make much of a difference. But pretreating with a brine solution can help ice from ever forming and will help reduce the amount of road salt trucks will need to spread to de-ice later.
Where does the salt/brine come from?
David Flinn explained that the City of Bedford makes its own salt brine for the roads. “We make our own salt brine with specialized equipment, but our salt comes from different suppliers and is trucked into our location usually from an Ohio river port near Louisville Kentucky.”
