With a long, cold, snowy winter winding down, Public Works Director Peter Hill talked about how the town Highway Department does its work.
“Every storm is fought differently,” Mr. Hill said. “You don’t necessarily do the same thing for every storm.”
Weather predictions — what the storm is expected to do — are part of the decision.
“We usually don’t start plowing until we get two inches on the roads,” Mr. Hill said.
“Sometimes people will wonder, ‘Why aren’t they plowing?’ We’re doing that for a reason: It’s going to turn to freezing rain and we’d rather have the freezing rain land on snow than have that freezing rain on pavement.
“If we know it’s going to turn to freezing rain, we won’t plow. If it gets too deep, we have to. But if there’s only a couple of inches, it’s better to leave that snow — then once it stops raining, we’ll go out and scrape everything.”
Storms that arrive in early morning hours — especially on weekdays, when commuters and school buses will be a factor — may demand a different approach.
“The best thing for us is to get the salt put down early,” Mr. Hill said.
The highway crew needs to know when the snow starts.
“Late at night we ask the police to call us early so we can get the guys out on the roads,” Mr. Hill said.
Magic salt, no sand
These days the town uses salt that is enhanced with an additive originally found as a waste by-product of alcohol distillation. The treated product is called “magic salt” or Ice B’Gone.
“We’ve been using it probably about five years, six years,” Mr. Hill said. “And it’s an excellent tool, because it makes salt work at a lower temperature. The melt factor for straight salt is 24 degrees. Anything below 24 degrees you’re not going to get a lot of melting unless you have a lot of traffic on the roads. If you have a lot of traffic, just that heat of the tires will help the salt work.
“With the chemical added, it lowers your melting factor with salt. Some people tell us it’s almost down to zero and you can get a good melting. But definitely down into the single digits and teens, with the chemical, the salt works well,” he said.
“We don’t put sand on our roads anymore. A lot of people ask me why we don’t use sand anymore. Sand is only good for the first dozen cars,” he said. “Once that sand gets pulverized by the wheel load of cars, the sand doesn’t do anything.”
Without sand, the salt product leaves roads cleaner in the spring, reducing the need for road sweeping.
“We’re using just straight salt and it dissipates,” Mr. Hill said. “Afterwards, it’s gone.”