Ottawa can beet icy sidewalks.
Posted Nov 30, 2011 06:17:25 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
In an attempt to cut back on the amount of salt, as well as the cost of salt needed to keep city sidewalks free of ice, the city will be spraying a beet juice-brine mixture on the pavement.
Public Works boss John Manconi said “we’re going to pilot it and see how it works.”
The beet juice mixture will be distributed with a new rechargeable push-machine, which set the city back $1,000.
The city uses aproximately 180,000 tonnes of salt each year, at a cost of $15 million. New GPS technology on the city’s 175 salt trucks has already helped to reduce the amount of salt used from 14,000 tonnes or $1 million each year.
The city’s road salt use is high on the list of Canadian cities and is attributed to four zones which all have different weather patterns.
Beet juice is something being tried in other icy parts of the continent as well. The beet juice mixture helps the anti-slip mixture from running off paths and sidewalks.
