Press release from Monmouth County about snow removal

County highway crews tackle first major snow storm

FREEHOLD – Residents woke up to a blanket of snow this morning, but for Monmouth County road crews the battle to keep the roads cleared of snow and ice began at midnight.

Yesterday, road crews from the county’s Department of Public Works & Engineering began applying 4,400 gallons of liquid salt brine to many of the county’s roads in order to prevent the snow and ice from bonding to the road surface. The county has 871 lane miles of roads. Then overnight – hours before the snow began falling – road crews began applying rock salt treated with magnesium chloride, totaling 325 tons by 1:30 p.m. today.

“We began preparing for this storm yesterday afternoon and we activated the snow room at midnight,” said John W. Tobia, director of the county’s Department of Public Works & Engineering. “We began monitoring the storm as it approached and started applications of treated rock salt at 1:30 a.m. By 6:30 a.m. we switched from spreading to plowing, and then reapplied the treated rock salt. We had a full complement of crews out clearing the roads.”

The county put into service all 95 trucks outfitted with spreading and plowing capabilities to battle the storm, Tobia said.

The salt brine and magnesium chloride-treated rock salt are new this year. The salt brine and a pre-application of treated rock salt prevent the snow and ice from bonding to the roads, and the treated rock salt is environmentally friendly.

“The key is to keep the ice and snow from bonding to the road surface,” Tobia said. “You may have noticed that while the roads appeared to be snow-covered, the lanes were slushy instead of iced over. That’s the first step before the plows come by and push it all aside.”

As a result, there were far fewer telephone calls from local police departments with regard to trouble spots, Tobia said. Typically, when police dispatchers call to report icy conditions – usually on bridges or curved roadways –the county dispatches additional trucks to do some spot treatments.

The new rock salt works much better than the old rock salt, which was very corrosive to bridge structures, roadside vegetation, the roadway itself and trucks and equipment, Tobia said. “We have found that magnesium chloride-treated rock salt is much more effective and, therefore, there is a savings in man hours and material,” he said. “We use approximately 30 to 50 percent less material, depending on the snow event, for the same result.”

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