I often wonder how much money Northern states would save on roads if it weren’t for the extreme temperature swings.
Regularly hit highs over 100 in the summer, lows below -30 in the winter. That’s an awful lot of compression and expansion. Not to mention the abuse of heavy plows and their blades catching upheaved concrete.
I lived in North Dakota for almost 5 years, they dont use salt. Just a sand/dirt mix. Things get really nasty in the spring/early summer when it all starts melting.
They were trying out a weird chemical mix when we moved away, i want to say some glycol something or other? It was actually pretty slimy but way better than ice.
Many places have switched to a brine which uses a waste byproduct from cheese production. This greatly reduces how much salt is thrown onto the roads and also makes use of literal waste
When it gets that cold salt is useless, so thankfully we see much less of it throughout the winter. Sand is used instead. -20C and salt sort of stops working.
It’s wonder our roads look like they were shelled once spring rolls around. Last year was particularly bad, I don’t think the roads were in decent shape until the end of the summer. At least near Minneapolis.
I often wonder how much money Northern states would save on roads if it weren’t for the extreme temperature swings.
Regularly hit highs over 100 in the summer, lows below -30 in the winter. That’s an awful lot of compression and expansion. Not to mention the abuse of heavy plows and their blades catching upheaved concrete.
Should also mention the just, massive amount of salt dumped on them every year. Salt just ruins everything it touches.
Except french fries
Most meats, too.
I lived in North Dakota for almost 5 years, they dont use salt. Just a sand/dirt mix. Things get really nasty in the spring/early summer when it all starts melting. They were trying out a weird chemical mix when we moved away, i want to say some glycol something or other? It was actually pretty slimy but way better than ice.
Many places have switched to a brine which uses a waste byproduct from cheese production. This greatly reduces how much salt is thrown onto the roads and also makes use of literal waste
Edit: looks like there’s a few different mixtures but here’s the cheese brine from Wisconsin
When it gets that cold salt is useless, so thankfully we see much less of it throughout the winter. Sand is used instead. -20C and salt sort of stops working.
It’s wonder our roads look like they were shelled once spring rolls around. Last year was particularly bad, I don’t think the roads were in decent shape until the end of the summer. At least near Minneapolis.
And then the cycle repeats