Salt Treatment for Snow on the Trails?

[ian74]

@peterw_diy 105749 wrote:

Is Alexandria City salting the MVT in its borders? The amount of salt on MVT between Pendleton and Canal/First is crazy.

I was wondering the same thing. I just rode through there tonight and the amount of salt was ridiculous. I almost wiped out riding through it.

[baiskeli]

@KWL 105743 wrote:

The equine may have succumbed, but doesn’t the amount of chemicals dumped on TR parking lot negate the GW Parkways folks’ argument that clearing snow from the MVT would be bad for sensitive environmental areas? The parking lot is closer to the Potomac than the trail at this point. That’s a big pile of sodium/calcium/magnesium chloride there.

It doesn’t negate the argument that harm is done, but maybe it means they shouldn’t salt the parking lot either.

[PotomacCyclist]

Aside from the dangers of riding on excess salt on roads and environmental damage to rivers and fields, there’s also the immediate issue of breathing in all that salt. The other day, when all of the extra salt was blowing around downtown D.C., I could barely breathe. It was almost like being in the middle of a sandstorm in a barren desert. (Not that I’ve ever hiked through the Sahara, but most of us have been in minor dust storms, I’d imagine.) It’s also an eye irritant.

I really wish someone could figure out a better way, both for ice/snow melting and for dealing with excess road treatment when the ice is gone and there are no weather events forecast for the near future. I’m not a chemist or engineer, so I don’t have any good ideas. But there have been many difficult problems where someone has figured out a better solution. Here’s an opportunity to solve a problem. Any takers?

[Vicegrip]

They have. It is the same method used on the trail. A brine is made and pre aplied to the roads. It dries into whitish stripes and, here is the key aspect, it remains in place untill it melts ice or snow or is rained off. Granular salts are bad to pre apply as traffic grinds it all into dust and the winds blow everything all over……without any positive result. All pollution. No safety improvement. The method of brine application is often far more accurate as there are many variables with dry granular chloride treatment that are almost never addressed. A total crapshoot of too much or too little and most do too much to cover their butts and sell more salt.

Another positive aspect of pre treating is traffic is less likely to compress and hard bind snow to the pavement when walked or driven om A little pre treatment makes a plow, blower or rotary brush methods better able to clean to bare pavement.

[PotomacCyclist]

D.C. should read up on this. Their method was to dump tons of salt on all of downtown. At least that’s what it seems like. I’ll have to find an online suggestion form for D.C.

EDIT: This is the webpage for the District Snow Team: http://dpw.dc.gov/service/dc-snow-removal

“The District Snow Team is composed of the Department of Public Works and the District Department of Transportation, with the assistance of other DC government agencies. The Snow Team clears streets of snow and ice to promote safe vehicular travel.”

dpw@dc.gov

[Greenbelt]

Prince George’s could learn a thing or two as well. They heavily oversalt parking lots near the trails, but do not clear or salt the trails at all. This leads to some interesting issues, such as at Lake Artemesia, where there’s an immaculately cleared and heavily oversalted parking lot. That’s great if you’re a car, visiting the Lake to enjoy the parking lot. However, if you’re a person, wishing to use the actual park and not just the parking lot, and you arrive at the park in car or some other means, you face ice and snow-covered trails. Parks are for cars, dang it, not even the people driving them!
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