Stockpiling road salt is the most important advice when dealing with harsh winters. The Salt Institute encourages keeping one year’s worth of salt on hand before the snow arrives. Having a year’s worth of salt ordered at once can help you secure the best pricing available and protects you from shortages do to logistics problems.
When storing road salt there is two crucial things to remember: Cover the supply so it is out of the elements and place the supply on a concrete pad so the salt doesn’t settle into the soil. Also, protecting the edges of the storage area with some type of damning is important to keep the bottom portion of salt from getting wet via rain and snow melt runoff. This will also protect water from becoming contaminated with excess chlorides that have been dissolved in the runoff.
Experts looking back at the cruel winter of 2014 says the actual shortage of road salt was overstated, the real problem was in supply chain and transportation issues. The salt was there, getting it to the clients was the problem because frozen rivers eliminated barge usage, cold weather slowed trains, and hazardous road conditions stymied ground transport. This is why proper planning and storage will be a huge factor in having the salt you need when you need it.
