Salt Wise Municipal Champions

Bayside

The Village of Bayside is taking an aggressive step forward in their salt brine operations for the Winter of 2021. Their salt usage has been trending downward since 2018 due to the introduction of salt brine and comprehensive training on equipment usage. Last year, they only used 5.7 tons of salt per inch of snow over 46 miles of road. They completed equipment calibration of their fleet and they plan on ongoing calibration annually. Depending on how their salt brine operations go in the Winter of 2021 - which is looking optimistic - they plan on budgeting for better equipment and larger storage. Additionally, the Village will be looking for local partnerships to purchase and make their own brine in the future.

Cudahy

The City of Cudahy Department of Public Works started its salt reduction program a little less than a decade ago. The first initiative was to learn the art of calibration. Properly calibrating the salting equipment resulted in a 46.5% reduction in salt and a cost savings of roughly $60,000 annually. Over the years, the City used these savings to purchase anti-icing application equipment and V-Box hoppers and electronic spreaders with electronic ground speed controls. The updated equipment and the anti-icing application resulted in an additional 20% reduction in salt usage. Cudahy went from using roughly 2000 tons of road salt in a “bad” winter to clear its 149 lane miles of streets to about 660 tons. The department, however, could not achieve this without the involvement and support of its staff from the personnel behind the plow to the department’s leadership. Cudahy is now on the final step of optimization and the advice we give everyone is calibration takes work and it’s a science, but it will give you the best outcome. 

De Pere

De Pere takes salt reduction seriously. The City first started investigating alternatives in 2008. Since 2009, they have been using brine for anti-icing and de-icing. They’ve since honed their use of brine by connecting with municipal and county experts throughout Wisconsin and Illinois.

In 2011 they invested $125,000 in equipment to produce salt brine. In-house production enables staff to control the quality of brine and blend custom mixes for individual events and led to a 35% reduction to their annual salt budget.

De Pere plows approximately 250 lane miles and anti-ices all primary roads (approximately 100 lane miles). Anti-icing before the smaller events saves the City $1,000 (in labor and fuel) as they can avoid dispatching salt trucks altogether.

DeForest

“The Village of DeForest has reduced salt use by 200 tons a year. Calibration and pretreatment help save on salt and call outs for the smaller snow storms. Going through the [Salt Wise] class was a huge eye opener for everyone. Our crew has really accepted the idea of saving on salt and trying new things. We use Facebook to talk about the salt brine use on the roads and have sent letters to businesses to help reduce the amount of salt used on their parking lots. Our goal is to have the businesses and residents see the benefits and keep our rivers, streams and lakes clean.”

Greg Hall, Public Service Project Coordinator

Linn

Fewer trips equals less salt, less fuel, less vehicle wear & tear, and less time. All frontline trucks are calibrated annually, have liquid capabilities and pavement temperature sensors. The primary barrier I overcame was a ‘this is the way we have always done it’ mentality. We have worked diligently over the last 2 years to bring all the pieces of snow and ice control to BMPs. My biggest highlights are the staff buy-in and constructing our own brine-making and blending system.

-Matt Wittum, Highway Superintendent

Menomonie

The City of Menomonie started implementing salt brine for pre-wetting and anti-icing in 2015. Salt brine is applied before a storm on the main highways, bridges, hills and curves in the city. Initially, staff manually mixed salt brine for use on city streets. In 2021, the City completed an expansion of the Community Services shop. This expansion included a salt brine mixing and storage area to increase efficiency and accuracy in creating and loading the brine. Trucks are calibrated on an annual basis. The City continues to upgrade equipment such as spray bars, brine tanks, variable speed controllers and electronic calibration for anti-icing and salt reduction as trucks are due for replacement. 

Onalaska

We knew that we needed to lower our use and dependency of salt after seeing the increase of sodium and chloride levels in our municipal drinking waters. It was clear that if current trends continued, the wells would become inoperable. Drilling new wells would cost millions. 

To tackle the problem head-on, we decided to do a study of two areas of the city.  Every storm we applied different pre-treatments and post treatments with salt and salt brines.  We took pictures throughout the next day to see how the products worked. This is where the turning point came for us. It is hard to deny that salt brine works when you have side-by-side photos.

Staff members are now advocates for the use of brines and liquids. Now that we understand and have confidence in liquids, we are changing as many pieces of equipment over to applying brines as possible. Our goal for the next 5 years is to change out our mainline trucks to Henderson First Response systems which can attack storms with four different options of brine and salt combinations. These units could drastically drop our salt rates. We’ve already dropped per event salt use by 25%. After fully upgrading equipment, we anticipate 50% reductions!

Paddock Lake

From 2010 to 2020, Paddock Lake has been successful in reducing its total salt use by 63% through improved training of Public Works staff, precision applications, improved plowing practices and incorporating passive “solar power.”

Using a precision application method, staff can place road salt in a windrow in the center of the road and eliminate the bounce-and-scatter effects of placing road salt using the traditional broadcasting methods. This windrow placement is effective at melting snow and ice from the crown to edges of roads.

The primary improvement to plowing which has reduced salt use is the mechanical removal of snow from both lanes of roads before placing road salt.

Of the 41 lane miles maintained, 36% (or 15 miles) of Village roads have southern sun exposures. With an eye for salt reduction, public works staff incrementally dialed back the amount of road salt used on these roads. They are now maintaining a high level of service with 60% less salt on the sun-bathed stretches.  

At specific and air and pavement temperatures, Public Works mixes in with road salt “bird’s eye” gravel to provide traction while the road salt begins to melt ice and snow. This gravel is larger than sand but smaller than typical pea stone, the stone/gravel is heavy enough to not be a suspended solid like sand. Adding aggregate to the road salt works well to provide traction while salt works.

To monitor progress of our chloride reduction program, Village staff draws water samples monthly from ground water monitoring wells and sanitary sewer maintenance structures to track and quantify chloride reduction in ground water. The proven reduction of chloride in ground water is a direct correlation to the reduction of road salt used in winter months.

The Village of Paddock Lake’s success in the reduction of chloride entering waters of the state and ground water is directly related to the Village Public Works staff full participation and acceptance of the adopted reduction plan.

Timothy A. Popanda, Village Administrator

Portage

In 2015, we calibrated our spreaders to 300lb/lane mile and implemented salting on our last pass instead of during the storm. This resulted in a 40-70% salt reduction per storm with no substantial decreases in level of service.  We averaged 30-35 tons per event with these practices; down from 40-100 tons per event.

In 2018/19, we outfitted our first plow truck with a pre-wetting system and took the calibration down to 225lb/lane mile. By January 2021, all three salt trucks were running pre-wet and we dropped our salt use an additional 10 tons per event. We’re now averaging 20 tons per event. 

We average 20-25 salting events per year and are seeing an $800-$1,000 per event cost savings. We have received nothing but positive comments about the level of service since January of 2021.

Sheboygan

The City of Sheboygan’s Department of Public Works (DPW) began anti-icing practices in  December 2016  and is continuing with it this winter season. Anti-icing applications and pre-wetting road salt have reduced the amount of salt used and provided clearer roads for Sheboygan residents. The DPW issues snow plowing updates on social media and on sheboygandpw.com.

Anti-icing: The direct application of brine to roadways, also known as anti-icing, prevents snow and ice from forming a bond with the road surface and makes it easier to remove the snow from the roadway. The DPW pre-treats the main arteries before snow events leaving white strips that resemble chalk lines on the main roads. The DPW will not pre-treat streets if it will rain before the snow or if the pavement temperatures are below 20 degrees.

Pre-wetting salt: DPW trucks can now apply brine to the salt as it is applied to the road surface. Pre-wetting the salt with brine activates the salt so it starts working immediately. Traditional applications of dry rock salt need to contact precipitation before it begins to work. Additionally, when dry salt is applied to roadways, researchers have found that up to 30% of the salt bounces and scatters into the curb lines. Pre-wet salt does not bounce as much and stays in the roadways.

Superior

The City of Superior’s salt use has decreased significantly since 2014. In the past two years, the City of Superior has used about 1,000 tons less salt (a 34% decrease) and saved over $60,000. Our most significant barrier was receiving support to invest in new equipment. However, the annual cost savings and salt reductions have increased support for these investments.

The true gamechangers were calibration of equipment and the purchase of front-sided discharge sanders that provide the operator with more control at the truck's seat. We recently invested in trucks that apply salt and sand and have a spray bar system with larger liquid tanks to apply liquid Magnesium Chloride or Potassium Acetate for extremely cold temperatures that reach below 15°F.

The City of Superior Streets Department has implemented salt and safety trainings for the past five years and is in its third year of the Snow Rodeo Challenge. The Snow Rodeo is kicked off with trainings that includes the "do's and don'ts" of plowing, areas of concern (hazards or missed plowing areas), and information about salt’s toll on our infrastructure and freshwater ecosystems. After the trainings, the drivers are broken into teams to complete an obstacle course. Our operators take pride in their work and it shows!