A salty solution: P.E.I. pilot project could lead to safer roads
P.E.I.transportation officials hope an experiment on some secondary roads in Stratford, P.E.I., may lead to less slippery conditions across the province.
Currently, 90 per cent of the roads on PEI are sanded, with only the main highways getting the more expensive salt.
The province says sanding one kilometre of a two-lane road costs $700 per winter, while salting one kilometre of the same road costs $2,000.
The major routes also get an extra treatment. For the past five years, a briny solution has been added to the salt to keep the crystals from bouncing or getting blown off the road.
Sticky sand
Now transportation officials want to see if the briny solution would also be effective to keep sand sticking to secondary roads.
So far, officials say the results are promising.
"It is sticking a lot better," said Paula Biggar, P.E.I.'s Minister of Transportation.
"We're pretty pleased with the results so far and we'll continue to monitor and collect that information."
Biggar added that using brine also means the department is using less sand.
"Mixing the sand with brine before it hits the road, it makes the sand adhere better to the ice," she said. "So you're not out there having to sand as much and putting that sand on that's just blowing off to the side of the road, so it does reduce the amount of sand that's out there."
The brine solution is mixed in the department's salt building on Brackley Point road.
You might wonder why highway officals couldn't just use regular salt water, since P.E.I. is surrounded by the ocean.
Employee Troy Brown, who mixes the salt with fresh water to make brine, said the briny solution he makes is more than 23 per cent salt. Compare that to the ocean, where salt water is between three and five per cent salt.
Biggar said officials will wait for the final results from the Stratford experiment to determine if brine will be used along with sand on other secondary roads in the province.
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