This is a letter from Jim Clyde, Operations Manager at the Littleton Highway Department, regarding an inquiry about salting the roads around Long Lake:
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Over the years the industry has gotten away from sand because of other long term environmental effects. Sand does nothing to remove snow & ice from the roadways and only gives traction for minimal time. Sand also fills the catch basins, roadsides, drainage swales and eventually wetland areas. Sand needs to be swept up from the roads, cleaned from the catch basins and disposed of in certified landfills according to Massachusetts law (which we do). We do what we need to do make the roads as safe as possible but also be considerate of the environment and costs. We have this environmental discussion throughout the year and especially during the winter while we are in the midst of snow season. The salt is also expensive and again we do what we can to reduce costs.
When I started with the highway department we used sand and salt mixed at a 50% ration and used 2 loads of material per treatment (approximately 18 tons (9 tons sand & 9 tons salt) on each of the 6 routes (12 loads). Depending on the event you had to treat multiple times to get the “ice” off the road. We switched to “straight salt” approximately 12 years ago. We calibrated our machines spread 250 pounds of material per lane mile (one side of the street as one lane and each street has at least two lanes). Since making that switch we reduced to one truck load of material per route (6 routes). We have added multiple roads over those years during that time as well. When we switched to straight salt we also added a liquid chemical to the salt to make the salt more effective at colder temperatures and the chemical (magnesium chloride) also leaves a residual coating on the road surface to help with refreezing events. (refreeze after the sun goes down)
We have also added ground speed controls to 4 out of 6 trucks. This system helps to use the same amount of salt no matter how fast or slow the truck goes. This is very helpful in the lake area because of all the hills and turns. The trucks tend to need to drive at a much slower speed thus spreading more material and increasing salt usage. The ground speed counter acts the slower speeds and puts less material on the ground (The same amount as we require to be spread) (thus reducing salt usage).
I have included the Chris Stoddard new DPW Director, Corey Godfrey the water department environmental analyst and Jim DeVogel the highway foreman In case they have anything further to add.
As I stated we do our best to reduce costs or keep costs steady, do our best at snow removal while still keeping public safety in mind and we also look at the snow & ice industry as a whole to see what changes we can do to make a difference.
Sincerely Jim Clyde