Last year the city started using brine on roadways to assist with winter maintenance activities. The brine was used instead of granular salt in some situations. This was used as a pretreatment prior to a storm event in intersections and other key areas. It was also used at other times to increase melt replacing granular salt that has been used in the past.
Using a brine mixture has a number of advantages but also is one tool in the tool box of winter road maintenance. Using it to pretreat roadways is helpful in preventing a bond of ice forming on the road itself. Using it after an event is helpful in that the same benefit derived from granular salt is obtained at a fraction of the expense and with better results. The application is more consistent. This practice is also more environmentally friendly as the use is kept to a minimum keeping excess salt from surrounding properties.
Salt or brine isn’t recommended for all roadway situations. Salt looses it effectiveness when it gets very cold. At that point the use of sand is recommended. Roadway temperatures are checked to manage the use of brine when conditions are right. Having brine at the right concentration is also important. Too weak of solution will freeze and is a waste of resources in application.
With the experience gained this past year using a system that was built by the public works crew we have been working at fine tuning our efforts. This system was problematic in that the mixing of the salt and water was slow, salt additions were done by hand being somewhat unsafe in practice, and our product was not adequately filtered to remove fine particles that affected application. Commercial systems are designed for a more mechanized and safer approach to brine making and were considered for purchase in 2013.
The city worked with a vendor in getting prices available for the 2013 budget. This vendor understood that the city was interested in acquisition of a commercial brine unit. He had a demonstration unit available that could be had at a significant discount. After discussing this with them they would make the unit available to us prior to the end of the year with payment occurring in 2013. Essentially the city would recognize a 20% discount in the equipment and get a 90 day no cost loan.
The City Council at the October meeting considered the request and agreed the purchase was in the best interest of the city in a number of ways. The obvious is the saving of money with the purchase itself. The city also benefits from a better and safer system of brine production. The residents benefit from a continued effort to keep our roadways safer in the winter months as well as keeping maintenance costs in check. It’s a win-win situation for all.
