Road Salt Management
Keeping Grey County's Roads Safe in Winter
The County of Grey follows best practices consistent with those used across North America and employs the latest winter maintenance technologies:
- All salt spreading trucks are equipped with Electronic Spreader Controls (ESC). These instruments allow the operator to control the amount and location of salt placed, resulting in efficient salt usage.
- All salt spreading trucks use 'pre-wetted' salt. This practice involves adding a small amount of liquid de-icier to road salt as it is placed on the road. Pre-wetted salt stays on the road better and works faster than dry salt.
- Infrared thermometers are installed in all winter maintenance vehicles to provide fast, accurate road and air temperature readings. This information assists in planning where and when salt application will be most effective.
- Trials are underway using rubber snow plow blades. These blades are more flexible and clean the snow from the road surface better than traditional metal blades, resulting in less need for salt.
- The County is expanding the use of snow hedge innovations that prevent snow from drifting onto highways, resulting in less need for salt.
- Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) systems, using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, allow maintenance managers to monitor salt usage to ensure application rates conform to ministry standards. These systems are currently installed on 12 vehicles.
- The County has access to various MTO Advanced Road Weather Information Systems (ARWIS) to monitor and forecast road and weather conditions to schedule winter maintenance operations and eliminate unnecessary salt applications.
County staff attends conferences on a broad range of highway maintenance topics, including winter maintenance technologies that can reduce salt usage.
The County’s actual salt usage is highly dependent upon weather conditions, varying from 15,000 to 18,000 tonnes of salt annually. Combining safe road salt use with new and existing technologies is estimated to reduce road salt use by up to 20 per cent.
The County of Grey is also a member of a national Road Salt Management working group assigned by the Council of Deputy Ministers responsible for transportation and highway safety. Consisting of both Canadian road maintenance agencies and Environment Canada, this group ensures state-of-the-art salt management practices are identified. The County will continue to explore new and emerging technologies to further enhance road salt management practices.
