Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Duke
What chemicals do they use?
Ted
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Mostly salt, under various fancy chemical names: sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, and potassium chloride. More recently various liquid mixtures are sprayed before a storm. These are often waste by-products from other industries.
The cheapest form of salt available is the most common, although among the most corrosive. I worked at the Arizona Highway Dept. for 27 years and saw them go from no salt (just cinders) to applying 300 lbs. of salt per lane per mile per each application. And they ran non-stop during storms.
This was in Flagstaff, where the average snowfall is about 100 inches per year. (And you thought you could find a salt-free car in that state?)
The cinder spreaders would rust out within a couple years so they started buying spreaders made out of stainless steel.