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A salty solution: P.E.I. pilot project could lead to safer roads

P.E.I.transportation officials hope an experiment on some secondary roads in Stratford, P.E.I., may lead to less slippery conditions across the province.

Experiment with brine appears to be working, says transportation minister

Pat Martel · CBC News ·
A close up on salt coming off a truck
Watershed groups on P.E.I. have created education campaigns encouraging Islanders to use less road salt and keep it out of waterways because of the impact of road salt on animals and the environment. (Pat Martel/CBC)

P.E.I.transportation officials hope an experiment on some secondary roads in Stratford, P.E.I., may lead to less slippery conditions across the province.

Currently, 90 per cent of the roads on PEI are sanded, with only the main highways getting the more expensive salt. 

A plow pulls up to the salt shed on Brackley Point road to fill up with the brine solution, and with salt. (Pat Martel/CBC )

The province says sanding one kilometre of a two-lane road costs $700 per winter, while salting one kilometre of the same road costs $2,000.

The major routes also get an extra treatment. For the past five years, a briny solution has been added to the salt to keep the crystals from bouncing or getting blown off the road.

Sticky sand

Now transportation officials want to see if the briny solution would also be effective to keep sand sticking to secondary roads.

So far, officials say the results are promising. 

Transportation Minister Paula Biggar says the experiment in Stratford to add brine to the sand, is keeping the sand from blowing away. (Pat Martel/ CBC)

"It is sticking a lot better," said Paula Biggar,  P.E.I.'s Minister of Transportation.

"We're pretty pleased with the results so far and we'll continue to monitor and collect that information."  

Biggar added that using brine also means the department is using less sand.

"Mixing the sand with brine before it hits the road, it makes the sand adhere better to the ice," she said. "So you're not out there having to sand as much and putting that sand on that's just blowing off to the side of the road, so it does reduce the amount of sand that's out there."

A front end load drops a bucket load of salt into a giant hopper. Fresh water is added to make the brine the right strength, at just over 23 per cent salt. (Pat Martel/CBC)

The brine solution is mixed in the department's salt building on Brackley Point road.  

You might wonder why highway officals couldn't just use regular salt water, since P.E.I. is surrounded by the ocean.

Employee Troy Brown, who mixes the salt with fresh water to make brine, said the briny solution he makes is more than 23 per cent salt. Compare that to the ocean, where salt water is between three and five per cent salt.

The huge salt shed on Brackley Point road can hold up to 8,000 tonnes of salt at a time, but over the entire winter, up to 25,000 tonnes pass through this facility. (Pat Martel/CBC)

Biggar said officials will wait for the final results from the Stratford experiment to determine if brine will be used along with sand on other secondary roads in the province.

  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pat Martel

Former CBC journalist

Pat Martel worked as a journalist with CBC P.E.I. for three decades, mostly with Island Morning where he was a writer-broadcaster and producer. He retired in Oct. 2019.

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