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Private contractors have an important role to play in reducing use of salt during winter maintenance. Like municipal snow fighters, private contractors can monitor pavement temperatures and adjust salt use accordingly, calibrate equipment, and use a salt-water mixture to pre-wet salt or to apply it as a liquid on paved surfaces ahead of storms. We developed a short video and online calculators to help private contractors use sustainable salting practices.

Equipment Calibration

How-Tos for Private Contractors

Private contractors should also calibrate their salting equipment at least annually. This process involves measuring salt dispersed at varied auger settings and measuring estimated spread width of salt at a preferred spinner setting as shown in this 1-minute and 42-second video. This information can then be used in conjunction with our online calculators to determine the auger setting to use to achieve recommended product application rates for the property being maintained.

Calculators

Deicing Product Application Calculator

is a limited liability program in which commercial businesses can participate to reduce use of salt and ensure surfaces are safe during winter storms. This program provides guidance on the amount of deicing products to use and actions to take to maintain parking lots and roads under varied winter conditions. We worked with a programmer to translate their guidance into an . You might consider saving this as a bookmark on your smartphone (as if it were an app) for easy access. Here are directions to do this , and .

Auger Settings Calculator

While private contractors can determine the recommended deicing product application rate based on weather conditions and materials used with the , that calculator does not provide guidance on what auger setting to use or speed to drive using a preferred spinner setting to achieve the recommended application rate. To further aid contractors, Lake Champlain Sea Grant developed an . This calculator requires users to enter information obtained during calibration and from the deicing product calculator. It then suggests what speed to drive and what auger setting to use to achieve the recommended product application rate. The calculator enlarges the speed closest to 10 mph as that is easy to see on the speedometer and is commonly used in parking lots. However, the calculator also provides information about other auger settings that were input and associated driving speeds to allow the contractors to use their best professional judgment at each location to distribute the recommended amount of product.

To use the calculator, you will need: 1) measured salt output at each auger setting in lbs/minute (collected during calibration); 2) the spread width of salt at your preferred spinner setting (collected during calibration); 3) the recommended product application rate based on product being used and weather conditions.