Townships: New Way To Salt Roads Will Save Money

HAVERTOWN–On Friday, Oct. 21, officials from both Haverford and townships held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to show off a shared brine program that they say will change how area roads are salted during snowstorms. 

The event was held at the Haverford Township Public Works department on Hilltop Road in Havertown, where officials were surrounded by the brine tank and two brine sprayer trucks, one from each township.  

Larry Gentile, Haverford Township’s manager, said the equipment cost the township $102.350. The brine maker and tank, which holds the brine, costs $68,000, with the remainder going towards the three spraying tanks for the trucks. 

The two townships are using the money saved from another joint venture in the form of a leaf and compost program, which has saved Haverford Township an estimated $300,000 in manpower, fuel and other costs, Gentile said. 

“The cost for the brine maker will be paid for by the sales of the compost. It may take three years but the compost sales will pay for all of the brine equipment. Haverford has already reduced our snow salt 2012 budget by $54,000,” stated Gentile.

Gentile said the brine will not only save the two townships money but will make it easier to treat roads before snowstorms.

Brine is a mixture of salt and water that can be used to treat area roads up to 48 hours before a snowstorm and will stay on the roads and melt snow and ice, Gentile says, as opposed to salt, which can be pushed to the sides of streets by cars and other vehicles.

It costs about $60 to coat a mile of road with salt, but it will only cost 18¢ to put brine on the same length of road, Gentile explained.

Haverford Township Public Works Assistant Director Stephen Sinibaldi explained that 23.3 percent of salt is in the brine when it is created, which is three times more salt than what is in the ocean, explained Marple Township’s 4th Ward Commissioner John Lucas.

Another benefit of using brine, Sinibaldi said when giving a demonstration of how it is created with the equipment that is housed in Haverford’s Public Works facility, is that it can be used again for the following winter.

“But let’s not forget the most important thing (about brine): It makes roads a lot safer, a lot sooner,” Lucas said.

With the two townships working together, other municipalities are noticing.

“Other townships are looking at what we are doing,” said Board of Commissioners President and 6th Ward Commissioner for Marple Township Michael Molinaro when he was explaining how Haverford and Marple were working together on this shared project.

“Working with another township is the way of the future,” Gentile said.

Both townships have three brine-spraying trucks each, but Gentile said he hoped that Haverford Township would add another one in the first quarter of 2012.

To read more about brine, please see the PDF document that Gentile provided to Patch back in March of this year.