Jim Hope, the Easton presenter invited to brief the committee on the county’s de‑icing program, described a multi‑year effort to reduce solid salt use through a combination of equipment upgrades, driver training and liquid brine pretreatment.
Hope said calibrated spreader controllers, prewetting systems at the spinner, live‑edge plow blades and larger brine‑making capacity have reduced pounds of salt used per lane mile in many county truck beats. He told the committee crews now routinely record per‑lane‑mile rates in the field and use that tracking to reward lower use and improve practices.
"The measure and calibrate. We calibrate all of our truck so that if we're asking for 225 pounds mile, that's what we're putting out," Hope said. He described typical recent averages of about 165–185 pounds per lane mile in parts of the county and contrasted that with earlier reported averages in the 300‑plus pounds per lane‑mile range before program changes.
Hope explained that pretreating roads with liquid brine helps activate rock salt at lower temperatures and reduces bounce and scatter from trucks. He said a permanent brine‑making facility in Cambridge can produce roughly 5,000 gallons an hour, while earlier portable units produced much less, and that moving to prewet brine at the spinner can reduce material use by as much as 60% compared with dry salt in some conditions. He also described operational rules — for example, not to pretreat when air temperature is below certain thresholds or when the road is already white with salt — to avoid waste and material loss.
Hope said live‑edge plow blades and conveyor‑style spreader systems also contribute to consistent material distribution and longer blade life, lowering long‑term costs. Committee members asked technical questions (lane‑mile vs. linear‑mile measurements, blade suitability on dirt roads) and thanked Hope for the presentation.
No committee votes were required for the presentation; members encouraged staff to continue tracking per‑truck data and to expand pretreatment where conditions and resources allow.