PLEASE SHARE: How Roadway Snow and Ice Removal in Bentonville has changed - Proactive versus Reactive With winter approaching and the hardships of last years atypical ice and snow storms still lingering in my mind, I decided to see for myself how our city has prepared for the next snow or ice event. Fellow Alderman, Roger Thomas, and I visited Bentonville’s street department and met with Bentonville Street Manager, Tony Davis. Tony pointed out that last years ice storm, which strained almost every street department in the region, was unique. That event was preceded by rain that quickly turned to thick ice, which made a very strong bond to the surface of our streets. Once the ice bonded to the asphalt, the difficulty of removal by city equipment was multiplied several times. Historically speaking, our city has not had the ability to PREVENT such bonding of ice to our road surfaces. THAT HAS CHANGED! After a significant commitment of research by Tony and our street team, they have engineered and assembled a process to produce Liquid Salt Brine. This new product will allow the liquid application/pre-treatment of our roadways in advance of a future ice event. The Salt Brine (~24% sodium chloride and water mixture) significantly prevents bonding of ice to our road surfaces. This is a big deal and will make future ice events much easier to handle with city equipment. Another PROACTIVE advancement in de-icing is related to BEET 55 (Beet Juice). I think we’ve all heard about the benefits of beet juice. I’ll just suffice to say that beet juice is going to play a role in getting Bentonville’s streets cleared quicker. During winter storm events, by monitoring the city website, you can assist removal efforts by following neighborhood parking guidance (which side of your street to park on)…effectively clearing a path for our snow plows to work. In closing, I arrived at our street department filled with skepticism about this winters snow/ice removal game plan, but left feeling confident that the streets in Bentonville will be among the first cleared in our region. Pictured: Brine manufacturing, Heavy duty snow plows and 4X4 dump/plow/spreader truck. Please SHARE, SHARE, SHARE, SHARE, SHARE
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 13:00:00 +0000
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