We owe a lot to snow plow drivers during inclement weather, but as the temperature falls how much harder does that job get?
Our area was hit with many inches of snow combined with heavy winds and freezing temperatures. In Lima on Monday, the temperature fell to -11 degrees. There is a point where salt becomes less effective. Thus, costing more time and patience for those working on the roadways.
"Absolutely," said Derick Smith, highway technician 3 at the Ohio Department of Transportation. "There’s a lot more challenges once the temperature drops. Now we can’t just dump salt, we are relying a lot on our liquids to make our salt work."
"We got some of our trucks loaded up with calcium," Brian Rader said, transportation manager at ODOT. "So we’re spraying calcium down on the pavement first then following behind with another salt truck, throwing a bit of salt. The sun’s actually in our favor, it’s melting some of the snow."
Using the liquid calcium chloride has been the method of success for the ODOT. According to ODOT, salt is effective at 15 degrees or higher. While calcium chloride is effective until the temperature falls to -25 degrees.
What the calcium chloride is able to do is eat away the hardpan of ice and making way for the salt to do its job.
Smith added using the calcium chloride has required more time from him. the liquid needs to sit much longer to become effective before going back through and plowing that melted ice.
Rader said with this only being the second big snowstorm of the season, the supply of salt and liquid is of no concern.
"Well with the temperatures, when they fall off tonight, we have potential of refreezing," Rader said. "Where the sunlight was melting the snow and the pavement gets wet, we do have the potential of refreezing, but we’ll have our night shift in tonight running the routes as well."
