Is pre-salting roads worth cost?

Re Just a pinch of winter salt goes a long way, Micallef, Dec. 15

Thank you for Shawn Micallef’s article about the overuse of salt during winter.

The most massive oversalting can usually be found on school yards and parking lots and other commercial lots. They are often salted fully for a tiny trace of dry snow and sometimes when they are bone dry.

What Micallef didn’t question was the merit of pre-salting surfaces with brine or rock salt, and whether this actually is of benefit in preventing slippery surfaces. I have looked at this question for years and in the vast majority of cases, pre-salting actually makes surfaces more slippery.

If a pre-salted surface is exposed to a windy, cold front squall, the salt will make the snow gather and accumulate, while on an unsalted surface, the snow will blow right off and not stick. As the snow gathers on the salted surface, each piece of salt becomes a little snowball with the salt in the middle. As it snows more, the snowballs become larger and mass together covering the surface.

Moreover, with the brine beneath, the snow slides on the liquid, making it very slippery; worse than if you did nothing.

Pre-salting also does not reduce over-salting as contractors and works departments always salt again anyway, even for tiny amounts of snow; not to mention the cost in energy of making and spreading the brine.

So why do they brine the roads? As I was told by the director of works for Ajax, they do it to say that they did “something”; to cover themselves against litigation and to make scheduling easier. Safety has almost nothing to do with it.

The Star should do a whole series on salt practices and costs, given the huge environmental costs of road salt. Peter Voth, Ajax