March 28, 2024
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Brewer tries using salt brine on roads

BREWER – When the snow fell Thursday, public works crews were out spraying salt brine on the city’s busiest streets as an experiment to see how it works, David Cote, Brewer Public Works director, said Friday.

“It helps to keep the snow melting,” he said. “If it works out well, we’ll continue to use it.”

Salt brine is a simple mixture of water and rock salt sprayed onto the road in a liquid form. The mixture melts snow until temperatures drop below 15 degrees, and is typically used at the beginning of a storm to help prevent snow buildup.

“We used it on State Street, Main Street, between State and Wilson, and on Wilson Street,” Cote said. “It seemed to help.”

The Penobscot Bridge, which Brewer crews maintain, also was sprayed.

Salt brine is not calcium chloride, which is typically sprayed directly onto salt or sand to help the material stick to the road and lower melt temperatures, Cote said.

“All this is is about a 30 percent mixture of salt with water” that is purchased from Bangor “at a very reasonable price,” he said.

Bangor has been using the salt brine mixture for years.

“They like it and it seems to be effective for them,” Cote said. “Mostly, we wanted to try it on the main roads.”

The 1-ton truck being used to spray the brine will be driving down the center of the roadways, so drivers should stay back and give the truck room to maneuver, Cote said.

“This will allow us to get the brine down where needed, and keep as much of the brine off other vehicles,” he said.


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