City planning to beet winter road conditions
BEET JUICE BRINE SHOWN TO MAKE STREETS SAFER
When there’s snow in the forecast, the beet goes on.
Beet juice, actually — making frozen roads safer, with less impact on the environment.
Calgary and cities across the nation have found success in applying beet juice instead of salted sand as part of their roadway safety program. And Lethbridge has been trying it out as well.
“We have tested it and we like the results,” reports Lee Perkins, the City’s transportation operations manager.
Canadian cities have found the beet juice brine is capable of melting ice even when it’s close to -30 C, while rock salt is powerless below-20 C. When applied ahead of a storm, the brine bonds to the pavement, preventing packed snow and ice from freezing in place.
When mixed with rock salt, maintenance departments report it has reduced the amount of salt used by about 30 per cent.
What’s more, fewer of the coated salt chips bounce off the road as they’re applied.
In Lethbridge, reports Perkins, his “snow fighters” have also been using molasses as a carbohydrate added to the brine mixture.
When they tested the beet juice, he adds, it was part of a brine that included about 23 per cent salt by volume.
Perkins hopes to put it to use once again. First, he needs a place to store it.
“Once the westside facility is ready we plan to store it there,” he says.
The City is gradually developing a public works depot at the north end of University Drive, taking some of the pressure off the much larger civic works compound on 3 Avenue North. When will that be in operation? “Hopefully, next season,” Perkins says.
Lethbridge motorists will probably notice when his crews are able to make greater use of the beet brine.
The streets will appear a little brown, proponents say, instead of looking like “black ice.”
And officials in Williams Lake, B.C. point out another positive feature.
When they put it to work, “It smells like a Tootsie roll.”
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