National APWA Excellence in Snow & Ice Award Winner Village of Buffalo Grove
After their annual review, the Village of Buffalo Grove Public Works Department revised their winter maintenance plan for 2014 – 2015 to
achieve the highest level of service possible at the lowest possible cost. The new plan was created by a team of veteran snow fighters and Public Works management with overarching goals to serve the needs of their community, improve program efficiency, utilize existing and emerging technologies, and demonstrate environmental sensitivity. Efforts to reduce road salt application rates is a direct reflection of their concern for the environment. Buffalo Grove is aggressively looks for ways to lead the industry in reducing environmental impacts wherever possible. As a result of their continuous improvement efforts, the Village of Buffalo Grove was awarded the APWA Excellence in Snow and Ice Control Award. Bryan Beitzel, Maintenance Superintendent, Village of Buffalo Grove, provided their complete award submission, which the can be found at http://drscw.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Excellence-in-Snowand-Ice-Nomination-Application.pdf.
The Real Cost of Salt Use for Winter Maintenance
How much does it really cost to use salt keep our roads and other surfaces free of snow and ice? The costs for salt and its application are only about $225/ton, but when one considers the damage to infrastructure, automobiles, vegetation, human health and the environment, costs are much higher. In literature from several sources, cost estimates for damage due to road salt range from $803 to $3341/ ton. While estimates for damaged
infrastructure or replacing contaminated wells are available, estimates
for environmental damage are not as straightforward and do not account
for all damages such as chloride toxicity to aquatic life and wildlife and changes in lake
turnover.
It is not feasible to remove chlorides from our lakes and streams. Prevention (reducing salt use) is the best way to reduce these damages and will also result in financial savings. For example, by reducing salt use by 10%, the Twin Cities Metro Area would realize savings in material and application costs plus reduced environmental damages estimated at $36 to $124 million/year
Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital Incorporates Anti-icing
At Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, we know that by reducing the amount of salt we use to keep our roads, parking lots and sidewalks, free of snow and ice, we can reduce the amount of chloride that finds its way into our environment. Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital is a 300 bed, acutecare
facility located in Downers Grove, Illinois. As a community based hospital, we have a zero tolerance policy for snow accumulation. In addition to maintaining a bare pavement policy at our facility, we have been implementing chloride reduction strategies over the past two winter seasons. During the winter of 2014/2015, we purchased new equipment and material to begin experimenting with anti-icing; we started with pretreating a few sidewalks. The pretreated areas achieved our desired outcome and prevented the snow/ice from forming a bond with the pavement. This reduced the amount of time and material we used to clear our pavement. Finish reading the article at the link below.
