Salt & Winter Roadway Safety: Salt & Highway Deicing Newsletter

Latest Salt and Highway Deicing discusses legal issues, risk management

2008-07-07T16:41:40Z

When bad things happen, people sue. It's a fact of life in our litigious society. Snowfighters can minimize their exposure, of course, by delivering highway conditions that avoid even fender-benders and by using materials that never cause environmental insult. But in the war against winter, sometimes there are casualties. This issue of Salt and Highway Deicing focuses on how agencies can minimize their chances of ending up in court explaining their winter maintenance activities.

Performance metrics will impact snowfighting

2007-08-10T19:59:36Z

The Summer 2007 issue of Salt and Highway Deicing has been published. This issue features a discussion on how new performance-measurement technologies and techniques are changing the way roadway agencies manage winter operations.

Written snowfighting plans are essential

2007-01-30T02:59:01Z

Perhaps you've been following the important three-part series of articles in Salt and Highway Deicing newsletter which have explored the imperative: written snow and ice control plans and policy documents are essential for winter maintenance agencies. The third e-segment is nearing publication, but all three parts of the series have been combined into a single printed (and soft copy). Download your copy or request a free single printed copy from the Institute.

Slip Sliding Away in Portland, Oregon

2007-01-18T17:21:04Z

If you ever questioned the value of salt for deicing, take a moment to check out the video, Bumper cars on ice in Portland, OR.

Any driver who ever experienced the total lack of control on ice, as the poor folks in this video did, will never have to be convinced of the value of deicing!

Road salt is a life saver!!

]]>

Deicing Chemicals and Pavement Concrete Deterioration

2007-01-11T20:01:14Z

Highway maintenance operators are continually barraged with advertising claims on the benefits of various deicing compounds. The number of conflicting claims out in the marketplace make it difficult to arrive at a decision one can comfortably live with. One of the areas of greatest contention is the effect of various deicing chemicals on pavement concrete.

I recently took part in an excellent Snow and Ice Meeting at Villanova University organized by Greg Nichols of Bryn Mawr College. During the course of that meeting, one of the speakers, who represented a deicing technology company in Iowa, told the participants of the highly deleterious effects of sodium chloride on concrete. Of course, it was the job of this individual to sell his particular brand of product. But was what he said about the deleterious effects of sodium chloride on concrete correct?

Among its various roles, the Salt Institute carries a strong educational component. In serving that role, we have to make use of the most reliable, objective sources of information available. With reference to the latest research on the impact of various deicing chemicals on pavement concrete we turned to Iowa State University’s Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences.

In a comprehensive paper authored by H. Lee, R. D. Cody, A. M. Cody, and P. G. Spry, entitled,

Effects of Various Deicing Chemicals on Pavement Concrete Deterioration

these researchers described their comprehensive investigations into the effects of different deicers on concrete deterioration. The materials they used were sodium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) with 5 different Ca/Mg ratios, Ca-acetate, and Mg-acetate. Each deicer produced characteristic effects on the concrete samples by physically and chemically altering the dolomite coarse aggregate, the dolomite coarse aggregate-paste interface, and the cement paste.

Their study conclusions revealed that magnesium in any form was the most damaging to the concrete. Magnesium chloride produced significant concrete crumbling and that calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) solutions were the most damaging of all solutions tested. Wet/dry and freeze/thaw cycling in CMA produced widespread and severe damage. Magnesium acetate produced similar damage.

Most significant of all, under the experimental conditions they employed, sodium chloride was the least deleterious material to concrete.

]]>

Put it in writing

2006-09-14T14:07:47Z

Always a good source of information for winter maintenance professionals, this month's Clear Roads' E-newsletter leads with the Salt Institute's three-part series on the importance of agencies having written winter maintenance plans and procedures. Thanks for the endorsement!

Summer 2006 Salt & Highway Deicing published

2006-07-18T20:15:04Z

This summer's edition features the first of a three-installment exposition of why snowfighting agencies should create written plans and policies, written by former NYSDOT maintenance guru Dewey Amsler.

Past issues are also available online.

Spring 2006 Salt and Highway Deicing newsletter available

2006-04-21T09:26:44Z

The Spring 2006 issue of Salt and Highway Deicing newsletter is available, featuring an article on blending liquid ice control chemicals.

Subscribe to Salt and Highway Deicing

2006-02-18T17:20:14Z

Subscribe to this feed and receive one feed per quarter -- immediate notice when the quarterly Salt and Highway Deicing newsletter is published. Archived editions are available.