It’s now early January and if you drive a car or have been outside in the past few weeks you’ve probably noticed all the cars and streets are full of the white stuff. No not snow but salt! During this time of year the roads are salted to melt the ice on the asphalt and make it safer for us to drive from place to place. Without it the roads would be treacherous or even undrivable in some circumstances!
Most provinces and cities use salt on their roads but some that have extremely low temperatures like the prairies use sand because salt does not work below -18! I have always heard that salt is harder on cars, roads and bridges. You sometimes hear od cars that were driven out west lasting longer because they have never been driven in salt. I don’t know if that is necessarily true but what we do know is that salt can also have bad effects on the environment.Sometimes road salt messes up people’s wells. There are is also evidence to suggest that road salt can be toxic to animals. It does however do a pretty good job melting ice al long as the temperature is above -18 and in our climate -18 is rare.
On the other hand sand also has its disadvantages. Sand is a lot messier and alot harder to clean up in the spring. It is also a lot more expensive and really only is used on roads for traction not for melting ice. So salt here in Nova Scotia is probably not going anywhere soon. It’s cost effective and gets the job done and is almost perfect for our climate except for the downsides of course!
So are we stuck with rusty cars and damaged roads forever? Maybe not. There have been some studies by a few different places that say there are non salt alternatives that can be used on roads. In some towns in the US they use beet juice on the roads! That apparently helps keep ice and snow off the pavement! So who knows maybe we’ll eventually use something other than salt but for now it seems that is what we get.
What do you think? What should we be using on our roads in the winter and what do youse on your driveway or steps? Let me know on our facebook Page or give me a call at 1800-496-2557. Check out this article about article I found about salt and sand used on roads. See that HERE!
Ben Holmes
