UPPER FREEHOLD: Town agrees to test salt-brine mix on roads

By Jessica Noll, Special Writer
   UPPER FREEHOLD — The Township Committee has agreed to test drive the county’s new program that pre-treats roads with a salt-brine mix prior to snowstorms in order to reduce the amount of time and materials spent on snowplowing.
   Committeeman Bob Faber proposed at the governing body’s Feb. 16 meeting that Upper Freehold test the county’s liquid salt-brine solution on 13.5 miles of township roads before making a decision on whether to expand the program to include more streets. Davis Station Road, Burlington Path Road, and Herbert Road will be the test thoroughfares whenever the next snowstorm is forecasted to hit.
   Earlier this month, Monmouth County Public Works Director John Tobia told the committee the county is saving money by using the salt-brine mix to pre-treat county roads to make snow and ice melt quickly. Snowplows no longer need to keep making multiple passes to keep county roads clear, which reduces the cost of materials and employee overtime related to plowing.
   Depending on road conditions, the county also uses a granular salt treated with magnesium chloride that sticks to the road better. Regular rock salt tends to bounce off the road when dropped from a moving truck, causing a lot of waste, he said.
   Mr. Tobia said the county would charge Upper Freehold about $1,900 to pre-treat 51 miles of main township roads (102 miles roundtrip) with the liquid salt brine solution and about $2,900 to apply the treated granular salt. The county is just covering its own costs with those prices, not making a profit, he said.
   The brine is a specially treated substance that melts snow and prevents it from “sticking” to the roads during a storm. Plowing afterward is easier because the snow glides off the road and the roads can then be salted as usual.
   Mr. Tobias told the committee the brine solution works best on open roads that receive a lot of sunlight, and treated salt is needed on roads with dense tree cover.
   The brine would cost about $19 per mile and the treated salt $27 per mile, Mr. Faber said on Feb. 16. The township has its own stockpile of salt and the trucks to apply salt, but it does not have the necessary equipment to apply the brine solution. That’s why the county has to be hired to treat roads with the liquid salt-brine mix.
   Mr. Faber said the township’s current supply of rock salt cost between $60 and $65 per ton. The treated salt the county uses costs $72 to $74 per ton, but less is needed because the treated salt sticks better to the road. Mr. Faber noted that although the county’s treated salt is $10 a ton more, “if they need to use 30 to 50 percent less,” the township would still be saving money in the long run.
   The committee agreed to test out the county’s salt-brine mix before the next storm, but did not reach a decision whether to use the county’s treated rock salt.
—Managing Editor Joanne Degnan contributed to this report.