Winter road crews keep eye on salt supplies

When winter weather hits, keeping the roads clear involves more than throwing out salt.

That's good, because many municipalties hold the bare minimum.

In Cape Girardeau County, preparation begins long before the first forecasts of snow and ice. Now is the time county and city governments start checking trucks and running through plans with employees to prepare for the months ahead.

"We're ready for it, but we're hoping we don't get any (snow and ice)," said Cape Girardeau public works director Tim Gramling.

Whether the city is coming off a particularly harsh winter or a mild one, he said crews take the same approach every year.

Road salt

Last winter's persistent storms didn't cause just school and business closures; they depleted road salt reserves for many municipalities. The county used more than twice its normal supply of salt last season, leaving reserves all but empty. The Missouri Department of Transportation reported using about three times as much salt compared to the previous winter.

Gramling said Cape Girardeau also used more salt than usual, but fared better than most cities. It put out bids a couple of months ago for 2,000 tons of salt to build its reserves but wasn't able to get quite as much as it wanted.

"We put out bid for 2,000 tons. We actually only got one bid this year, and that company was able to supply 1,500 tons," he said, "which is actually good for us, because we found other towns in the area that had smaller quantities they were looking for that couldn't get any at all."

The purchased salt combined with salt remaining from last year leaves Cape Girardeau with about 2,000 tons. Gramling said that's the minimum the city strives for each season.

With cities and counties across the state looking to stock up on salt, it's caused a shortage. In the past, Cape Girardeau County highway administrator Scott Bechtold said it typically could buy as much salt as it wanted, but high demands have changed that.

"Frequently, when supplies are not in tight demand, you can set up with suppliers, and you may be able to pick up a hundred tons, a thousand tons, whatever," he said. "We've got, I think, 150 tons we had on hand, and we'll check and see if we can get more. I feel like we can get some more, but we may not -- this year, they may not give us a blank purchase to get all you want."

While availability has dropped, road salt prices have risen. Gramling said Cape Girardeau paid about $91 a ton this year, nearly twice as much as last year. Still, he said he's heard of cities paying much higher prices.

Neighboring Jackson is one of them. Rodney Bollinger, the city's public works director, said it recently bought 50 tons at $145 a ton.

"The cost of high bulk salt has kept us from buying more," he said in an email. "If the price comes down over the next few months, we will be inclined to pay more."

Preparation

Gramling said the city already has started checking equipment and taking care of repairs. It has about eight dump trucks and eight pickup trucks, all with snow plows and salt spreaders, that can be sent to clear roads. Going through routine maintenance now means problems can be addressed before any winter weather hits, Gramling said.

Cape Girardeau County goes through a similar process, Bechtold said. The county also uses dump trucks, as well as road graders, to clear the 420 miles of roads it maintains. It uses backhoes to clear snow from county parking lots.

Bechtold said the county doesn't have a long checklist to run through before winter, because it uses those vehicles year-round for other purposes, meaning crews are aware of their condition. The bigger focus is on safety, he said. Checking tire chains so the vehicles can get around in icy weather and making sure each person who will be on the trucks wears shoe cleats for better traction on slick surfaces are among the items at the top of the list.

The Missouri Department of Transportation also has been gearing up for winter. It hosted a statewide drill Wednesday to test its readiness for the coming winter season. The roughly 3,500 employees involved in MoDOT's winter preparedness operations focused on issues like proper equipment operation, plowing techniques, safety measures and equipment inspection.

Stretching it

Last winter, the city of Jackson managed to largely avoid shortage problems by not including salt in each round of its road treatment program. The city used a mix of cinders and gravel, which improves traction on slick roads. Bollinger said the city plans to continue that this winter.

The county also uses a mix of cinders, salt and gravel to treat roads. Bechtold said for a number of years, the county didn't use salt.

Cinders and gravel commonly are used to help make salt supplies last a little longer, but MoDOT uses a more unusual ingredient. When winter approaches, the department stocks up on salt and beet juice. Beet juice, mixed with salt brine, helps the salt brine work at a lower temperature to treat icy or snow-packed surfaces.

Cape Girardeau does not use any other treatments besides salt and salt brine, said Gramling, but the city has its own methods of stretching supplies. Improved equipment makes it easier to monitor use, he said.

"Our salt spreader's controls are connected to the truck, and the speed of the truck is monitored by some of the controls on the spreader," Gramling said. "It actually will slow down or speed up the amount of salt being spread. That helps us save on usage. And we keep our trucks calibrated where we want a certain amount of salt put out per mile, because there's a certain optimal level, and beyond that, you're just wasting salt."

Experience

Gramling and Bechtold said experience can play a big role in being prepared for a harsh winter.

"There's not an exact recipe for what we do each and every time," Gramling said. "Each storm seems to have its own personality."

He said crews know to make decisions based on precipitation, temperature and time of day. Gramling said he's been with the city for about 18 years and uses the knowledge he gathers each winter to better prepare for the next year. Improvement is something the city has remained focused on, he said.

"We really feel like we're in good shape," he said. "Last year, that was a big factor that we had good equipment that was ready to go. That was one of the reasons why I think we were as successful as we were (in clearing the roads)."

Bechtold said crews that go out on the plows communicate with each other about their experiences and prepare as much as possible before winter weather hits, but problems still arise. Sometimes there are mechanical issues or other problems that can't be anticipated, but he said the best thing to do is address the problem and move on.

"You seldom feel like you're 100 percent confident, but we feel like we're at that 90 percent level," Bechtold said, "that we've done most of what we can to be prepared, and we'll have a little flexibility as we go to clean off the roads and help get people back to work."

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Jackson, Mo.