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Cold Lake taking a road less travelled

When residents hear the words road brining, they picture rusted vehicles and salt-covered roads. What the City of Cold Lake hears is something very different.
The City of Cold Lake is experimenting with road brining this winter.
The City of Cold Lake is experimenting with road brining this winter.

When residents hear the words road brining, they picture rusted vehicles and salt-covered roads. What the City of Cold Lake hears is something very different.

This winter, Cold Lake has decided to give the latest winter road trend a try, but what they want residents to know is it may not be as bad as they think.

Azam Khan, general manager of infrastructure services for the city, said they're testing a brining formula that mitigates rust and infrastructure damage.

“It's not pure salt. It has a lot of other road inhibitors. They're active ingredients that prevent those issues that people have in mind, like rusting,” he explained. “We're doing a very selective test case. We haven't fully implemented the program yet. We want to use the experience from other municipalities and how they're doing it.”

Currently, the city is only testing the method on a small section of road, and is watching cities, such as Edmonton and Calgary, closely.

Road Guard Plus 8 is a solvent used on roadways as an anti-icing agent. It's being utilized by Alberta Transportation, meets environmental health standards, and is currently being tested in some of the larger city centres.

Once applied, ice won't bond with the pavement, making it easier for road crews to remove packed snow.

“Before we invest into it, we just want to test it and see if it actually does the job that we need it for,” Khan said.

He explained how the cost of brining the road is equivalent, if not cheaper, than their current method of snow removal.

“The amount of time you're going to spend to remove a bonded ice-pack or ice on pavement, you come in with a snowplow then you have to bring in a grader, and you have to include those costs.”

However, there is good and bad when it comes to all methods.

Coun. Kirk Soroka has read articles about salting roads and its impact on vehicles, roads, infrastructure, and the environment. He expressed his concerns to Khan during one of their recent city council meetings.

“There's an article I read from back east about how it's actually destroying their infrastructure,” he said. “For example, in Montreal, they have concrete falling off of their bridges, and that's because of salting the roads… I'm not a chemist by any means, but I at least wanted to put that out there for discussion.”

Joel Dechaine, owner of JD Collision, explained how salting roads can be a mechanic's worst nightmare.

“Salt melts ice, and then that salty briny fluid gets into everything. It gets in-between panels and slowly starts to oxidize the metals, mostly from the inside out,” Dechaine expressed. “A lot of times we don't know it's happening, and then when we finally start seeing the rust, we think ‘oh look, there's a little bit of rust,' but usually on the inside of the panels, it's worse.”

When it comes to repairs, the best option is to remove the entire panel.

“Rust is almost a living, breathing organism. It doesn't stop. In order to repair rust properly, one has to completely remove it. You can't just grind off the paint, scratch the rust off, repaint it and hope that it won't come back,” said Dechaine.

He suggests washing your vehicle thoroughly at least once a week to remove any of the solvent.

“Fixing rust is something pretty much all body shops will not warranty the work they do on it,” continued Dechaine. “Some may say body shops like salt because it gets people in to get their vehicles repaired, but that's not really the type of repair we like. If we can't warranty our work, then it doesn't look like we can do our job well.”

The city hasn't looked into whether or not this method is more viable. Khan emphasized they're only testing the product, and are watching closely to see if it's something they will plan for in the future.

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