SAVING ON SALT – Lowell, Mass.
Over the past two winters, Lowell?s Public Works Department reduced its winter road salt use by 30 percent, saving over $780,000. The city attributed its savings to the instillation of spreader control systems on their snowplow trucks.
The system works by measuring environmental conditions, such as the vehicles speed and road surface temperatures, to regulate the rate salt or deicing materials are distributed, according to materials released by the manufacturer of the system, Cirus Controls.
Before installing the spreader controls, the public works department was wasting deicing materials. ?Our operators would typically set their existing manual spreaders to maximum and go, putting down about 1,000 pounds of salt per lane mile.? Kevin Murphy, Lowell?s city manager, said in a statement. ?As a result, our streets were often covered in salt after a storm.?
But after installing the spreaders, the savings ? not the salt ? began to pile up. ?We?ve significantly reduced the amount of salt runoff into our rivers, streams and homeowners? yards,? Murphy added. ?In addition, the salt savings over the last two snow seasons has reduced our snow and ice liability. The smaller liability has negated our need to dip into any other budget surpluses or incorporating a greater snow and ice deficit into the following year?s budget, which would add to our citizens? tax burden.?
