Getting There: Local crews largely stick to salt to de-ice area roads

The search for de-icers that don’t involve salt – and, by extension, don’t corrode cars or contaminate bodies of water – have led some states and researchers to experiment with a range of novel substances.

New Jersey sometimes uses beet juice in icy conditions. A Washington State University professor, Xianming Shi, and one of his graduate students, Mehdi Honarvar Nazari, recently published a paper that “evaluated the performance and impacts of several agro-based anti-icers,” including one that used a Concord grape extract.

While some of these alternative efforts have shown promise, the crews in and around Spokane are sticking, almost exclusively, to a more traditional substance: salt.

Salt mixed with sand, salt mixed with brine, or salt mixed with magnesium chloride, which is a different form of salt – the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley and the Washington and Idaho transportation departments all largely draw from this toolbox when preparing for, or responding to, a winter storm.

“We’re using salt, one way or another, with our products,” said Ernie Sims, maintenance superintendent for the Washington Department of Transportation’s Spokane area.

But the department does try to find ways to reduce the negative effects of the salt it puts down, Sims noted, pre-wetting with chemicals that include a “corrosion inhibitor” and “also reduces the scatter on the road.” The department also uses monitors along highways to gauge how much chloride – that is, salt – is leaving the road.

The Idaho Transportation Department also uses solid salt and a liquid saltwater solution, or brine, often in combination.

Brine is especially effective when used before a storm hits, said Megan Sausser, a department spokeswoman. It is also used with solid salt, she said, “as it helps the salt stick to the road and activate quicker.”

Spokane Valley, too, uses granular salt and magnesium chloride on its streets, plus sand in sparing amounts, since “sand has additional cleanup costs associated with it,” city spokesman Jeff Kleingartner said.

The city of Spokane puts down liquid forms of salt when it’s about 15 degrees out and spreads granular salt when it gets colder. The city also occasionally uses sand, “primarily for traction” and mostly on hills, city spokeswoman Marlene Feist said.

Feist said the city has recently started using a product called Ice Kicker. It’s that blue granular stuff you may have seen around the city.

“That one’s really effective down to colder temperatures,” she said.

It also contains salt, though it promises to “reduce corrosion by 50%.”

Feist said city crews only use de-icers on arterials and downtown, plus residential hills where traction is an issue.

“But flat residential areas, we’re not putting de-icer down,” she said.