BANGOR – Wintertime motorists on Interstate 95, be warned. The state Department of Transportation wants you to quit looking for the brown ribbon of sand that, in the past, has sifted from the backs of sand trucks as they prowled the 395-mile stretch of highway during snowstorms.

This year, the storm-slicked interstate from Houlton to southern Maine will be treated with road salt only, a dramatic change in focus that has the department scurrying to get the message out and to train its own truck drivers in the new technique.

Just because the brown road “security blanket” will not be visible for motorists to follow as they drive the interstate during a snowstorm, the DOT does not want anyone to think the perennial protectors of Maine’s interstate system are falling down on their winter maintenance duties.

The key word now is “salt,” according to the experts, who brought about 80 DOT truck drivers to Bangor this week for training.

Truckers will use rock salt that is simultaneously sprayed with calcium chloride, which makes it cling to the road better than sand. The new salt policy will have state trucks on the roads earlier during storms than their sand-spreading colleagues in local communities. Salting the highways as soon as it starts to snow or sleet is expected to prevent a slippery bond from forming, a problem often encountered with sanding roads.

There are many other advantages to treating winter highways with salt, a technique borrowed from the Europeans that has withstood several years of testing in this country, according to experts who spoke to the media Wednesday.

The downside of such a shift in focus is probably psychological, because Maine motorists may think the white roads they will encounter mean nothing has been done to de-ice them. The salt will provide better friction for car tires and allow them to hold the road for a longer period of time than roads treated with sand, said the experts.

Use of road salt is expected to be more economical than spreading sand because it takes a smaller amount to be effective, experts said. Eventually, the program is expected to save the state between $2 million and $5 million a year in costs.

Diminishing sand use is also expected to produce fewer gouges in windshields from flying pebbles. Salt also is healthier for humans than sand, according to Brian Pickard, highway maintenance engineer for the state DOT.

According to Pickard, microscopic particles of sand can be inhaled into human lungs and create a negative effect on pulmonary function. In rare cases, the granules act like asbestos and can cause certain types of cancer, a fact recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pickard and Stephen W. Colson, a transportation planning analyst located in Bangor, said salt is less harmful to the environment than previously thought.

About seven years ago, the EPA notified the city of Presque Isle its air was over the limit for sand particles, especially in the early spring, Pickard said. The community began using salt on its winter roads and the air quality improved. The city’s winter road conditions also improved, he said.

Many other northern Maine communities have turned to salt and the message appears to be spreading to central and southern Maine. Bangor and Brewer have used road salt only for years.

Environmentally, road salt has been shown to harm some foliage but it is believed the damage can be controlled with proper application. Groundwater won’t be affected, according to the experts.

Concerns about salt rusting cars are almost moot, given that newer vehicles are more resistant to such corrosion, according to Pickard and Colson.

Pickard and Colson talked with local media during the first of two statewide “W.I.S.E.” – Winter Ice and Snow Expert – colleges to be held. The first “college” was held in Bangor and the second will be held in Scarborough next week. Truck drivers from Aroostook, Piscataquis, Penobscot and Washington counties attended the three-day training session to get briefed on the technical aspects of treating roads with salt.

The salt project came out of research funded nationwide by $100 million from the federal government. Called the Strategic Highway Research Program, the effort represents the first time research dollars were allocated in a meaningful way to highway maintenance issues.

Colson was heavily involved in researching the salt program for Maine.

The DOT supervisors are convinced a salt-only program will mark an improvement in roads this winter. The only thing they worry about is the fear of the public.

“It may be a risk,” Pickard said, because of a possible mindset that sand is safest on winter roads.