Does your Town pre-treat road during Storms?

For the last few years Manchester has been laying down salt in the first couple hours of snow storms, we are finding pretty consistently that those ~2" thick post storm ice cakes do not accumulate. In fact Manchester no longer uses any sand, just salt all season long, apparently though salt is more expensive there is litle/no sand clean up in the spring. Kind of a cost trade.

Any other Town do this, any comments on effectiveness?

It sure helps out the undercarriage of all the vehicles too! Especially big rigs! That brine does do as intended, however it is tough on autos, trucks, soils; water wells and water supplies. We get blasted with the stuff up here, and I'm not crunching the numbers concerning safety issues, but if your well goes to hell, hope you know someone at the water bottling plant.

By the way, all the ex-conn folks you sent us have created for their 'new found friends', "chemical free zones" so now we can slip-side away, as Simon and Garfunkel uses to sing about!
In case you have not noticed, Turkeys and deer really like the 'salted grasses' beside the roadways in the spring, too.

PS: The ABS systems on TT units and straight rigs are taking it hard with the new chemicals, and there will be NO CLUNKER Law for Freightliner. Navistar, Peterbuilt, Volvo and other manufactures to cash in on.

I'm down here in SE Pa. about 20 miles NW of Philadelphia in the suburbs and for years now the state has been spraying a brine solution as much as 2 days prior to expected storms, you can always tell when they've done it via the white stripes running down the road, then once a storm hits they salt it like crazy and let it lay, then they may lay cinders on top of that depending, all said and done they start pushing it off with the plows at around 3-4 inches if we even get that much at once anymore!!!

I'm at the shore and they have been doing that on I-95 for a few years now I think. It does a great job as long as the stuff doesn't accumulate too fast. The Town of Guilford does the nasty spots, hills and turns that are dangerous.

MURDOC1 wrote:I'm down here in SE Pa. about 20 miles NW of Philadelphia in the suburbs and for years now the state has been spraying a brine solution as much as 2 days prior to expected storms, you can always tell when they've done it via the white stripes running down the road, then once a storm hits they salt it like crazy and let it lay, then they may lay cinders on top of that depending, all said and done they start pushing it off with the plows at around 3-4 inches if we even get that much at once anymore!!!

Them cinders are Coal ASH very common on PA roads in the winter along with road salt & that brine stuff is a waste of money once it hits a certain temp that stuff frezzes up makes the roads more icy

coal berner wrote:Them cinders are Coal ASH very common on PA roads

That maybe what they use in coal country but south of the Blue Mountain it's just 1/4in stone mixed with salt.

Razzler wrote:

coal berner wrote:Them cinders are Coal ASH very common on PA roads

That maybe what they use in coal country but south of the Blue Mountain it's just 1/4in stone mixed with salt.

coal ash is free around here thats why they use it on the roads they come around once a week and pick them up
curb side and pile it up in the shed then use them on the roads by themselves or mix with road salt .

Ohhh, don't get me goin'.... oops....too late! Yes, they pre-treat with the brine....liquid calcium...around here & have been for 4 more years. The auto repair places love it. They have sold more brake lines in the last three years than in all of history. The state police even held special classes to tech the inspection stations how to look for rotten brake lines. In my entire life I have never repalces brake lines on a vehicle that was less than 8 yrs old. In the last few years, I've done it twice.
Now I have a little story. My work van was going to get tires late this fall. The ones on it were OK, three would even pass inspection, the 4th would almost pass. A couple of months ago I had a slow leak. No biggie, I added air & turned to go get some soapy water, but, I didn't need the water, I could hear, then feel, then see the leak. The sidewalls were weather craked to the point of failure! I look at the others, they are all the same. Good golly, now I'm scared to drive it. There were brand name tires, Goodyear, and less than 5 yrs old. I'm thinking "Made where? from what?" So, I go to town to shell out the dough for four new tires and tell the tire guy this story. He says "Expect more of this type of thing". Huh? Why? I asked if they were using recycled rubber, or what, & he said "Oh no, the tires are just fine, it's the liquid calcium they're using on the roads." He told me "They are thinking of passing a new law, all tires get dated, all tires go in the trash after 5 yrs, regardless of tread wear."

My buddy that is head of the city highway dept says they willl NOT be stopping it's use. "It's cheaper to use". Well, is it really?

Another dumb idea that saves neither lives or money. When the roads are
treated, you can't tell the wet spots from the frozen spots. It just
lets dumb drivers hit the ditch at 55 instead of 35.

Ethanol is another dumb idea. Never put it in your chain saw, portable
generator,weed whip, etc,etc,etc. It rots steel fuel lines form the inside out.

Vermont isn't using it. I should clarify our town or the towns around us aren't using it. They stick to salt/sand. Usually salt if it's cold before the storm and sand after the mess is cleaned up.

tsb wrote:Ethanol is another dumb idea. Never put it in your chain saw, portable
generator,weed whip, etc,etc,etc. It rots steel fuel lines form the inside out.

Seems a little silly to me when the only gas we can buy is always 10% methanol/ethanol to begin with.

tsb wrote:Never put it (ethenol) in your chain saw, portable
generator,weed whip, etc

Where do you get gas without it? I treat all my lawn mower type gas with Sta-bil Marine, the blue stuff. So far no problems.

tsb wrote: Ethanol is another dumb idea. Never put it in your chain saw, portable
generator,weed whip, etc,etc,etc. It rots steel fuel lines form the inside out.

Using food to create a crappy fuel is bad in so many ways. Just ask the people that depend on eating it to stay alive. It would be nice to have a choice to buy gas without it. It's such a PIA!

You can still get ethanol free gas. You just have to look for it.
I have a station in Boyertown,Pa that I use. Wagner's on 562.
You'd be amazed at the difference in mileage.

Tom

tsb wrote:You can still get ethanol free gas. You just have to look for it.
I have a station in Boyertown,Pa that I use. Wagner's on 562.
You'd be amazed at the difference in mileage.

Tom

I've never seen it. What brand?