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Friday,
December 03, 2004
Shake on
the Magic Salt: Keene to use new de-icing road mixture
Author: Karen Sanborn
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It’s an experiment designed to get Keene roads
out of the Ice Age. The Keene Department of Public Works is trying a new
technique to make roads safer this winter. It involves
a solution that looks like coffee, smells like molasses
and is called — no kidding — “magic
salt.”
On Thursday, about 125 tons of regular road salt in
the public works shed at 580 Main St. was hosed with
a concoction called “Magic -0°,” a brown
liquid that is half magnesium chloride and half distilled
solubles — throwaway products from, for example,
a vodka manufacturing plant.
The post-spray result? A 10-foot heap of cinnamon-brown
“magic salt,” which city officials expect
to outclass regular road salt in every way.
Magic Salt” is designed to melt ice and snow
faster and at lower temperatures than road salt can
do, last longer on the road, and be less corrosive.
It’s also biodegradable.
Plus, said Keene highway superintendent Bruce Tatro,
it’s easier on the city’s checkbook.
Salt costs $40 a ton, Tatro said, and Keene uses about
5,000 tons per winter. “Magic salt” costs
more, about $62 a ton, but the city will probably only
use about 2,200 tons — about $64,000 less.
If all goes to plan, the city government could save
tens of thousands of dollars. The experiment is a first
for Keene and for the spraying company, N.H. Ice Melt
of Manchester.
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LOOKS LIKE COFFEE — Scott
Convery of N.H. Ice Melt sprays a liquid chemical
on road salt as it is dumped out of a payloader
bucket at a Keene public works building on Lower
Main Street Thursday. The white salt turns into
brown “magic salt” and is ready for
road use in minutes. STEVE HOOPER / Sentinel Staff
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It’s an experiment designed to get Keene roads
out of the Ice Age.
The Keene Department of Public Works is trying a new
technique to make roads safer this winter. It involves
a solution that looks like coffee, smells like molasses
and is called — no kidding — “magic
salt.”
On Thursday, about 125 tons of regular road salt in
the public works shed at 580 Main St. was hosed with
a concoction called “Magic -0°,” a brown
liquid that is half magnesium chloride and half distilled
solubles — throwaway products from, for example,
a vodka manufacturing plant.
The post-spray result? A 10-foot heap of cinnamon-brown
“magic salt,” which city officials expect
to outclass regular road salt in every way.
Magic Salt” is designed to melt ice and snow
faster and at lower temperatures than road salt can
do, last longer on the road, and be less corrosive.
It’s also biodegradable.
Plus, said Keene highway superintendent Bruce Tatro,
it’s easier on the city’s checkbook.
Salt costs $40 a ton, Tatro said, and Keene uses about
5,000 tons per winter. “Magic salt” costs
more, about $62 a ton, but the city will probably only
use about 2,200 tons — about $64,000 less.
If all goes to plan, the city government could save
tens of thousands of dollars. The experiment is a first
for Keene and for the spraying company, N.H. Ice Melt
of Manchester. Its
owner, Matthew J. Scott, started the business in April.
Keene became his first customer when it placed its first
order a couple of months ago.
Tatro said Keene’s road crews have already used
the “magic salt” twice.“It really
worked,” he said.
Magic -0° is sprayed onto regular salt heaps from
an amped-up hose attached to 220-gallon tanks. The spray
neutralizes the salt’s corrosiveness, and the
mixture becomes like a brine.
Then it gets worked over until it’s a cinnamon-brown
color. Within 10 minutes, it’s officially magic
salt — ready to melt ice and snow in temperatures
as low as 35 degrees below zero — at least 50
degrees colder than the temperature at which salt stops
working.
When it’s applied to the roads, Scott said, it’s
“like spraying Pam on a frying pan” —
it’s like a no-stick spray for streets. So when
plows clear off roads where magic salt has been used,
there shouldn’t be any hard-packed snow or black
ice left over.
Tatro said in the old days — meaning every year
up until now — city crews would spread 800 pounds
of regular salt on the roads in 25-degree weather. And
more salt must be spread as the temperature sinks to
15 degrees.
Colder than that, city crews had to rely on spreading
sand to keep slippery streets passable. Sand treatment
requires constant touch-ups and leaves a mess in ditches
and drains.
Now, with magic salt, Tatro said 400 pounds will cover
city roads in pretty much any temperature — from
25 degrees above zero to 35 below zero.
The beauty of the salt, Scott said, is that it should
do its job without needing a second dose.
“It saves crews from being out at 2 a.m.,”
Tatro said. “When it’s done ahead of time,
we’re not trying to play catch-up.”
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