Winter Salt Management For Parking Lots & Sidewalks Workshop: Fill & Download for Free

What have you seen whilst driving that has made you pull over to think about what you just saw?It was a warm February morning and I was on my way to the dry cleaners to drop something off before heading an hour away to my brothers to have a birthday celebration lunch with our dad. The dry cleaners is less than a mile from my home and I have one stop light on my way. As I approached, the light turned yellow. I have a general rule, if the light turns yellow before the left turn lane begins, I should be able to safely stop my vehicle, so thats what I did.There was a car coming from the opposite direction to make a left turn. As I was noticing the driver hesitating to make the turn, I soon found out why. A car in the lane next to me goes whooshing by my vehicle into the intersection just as my car was coming to a stop and the light was turning red. The car turning left had advanced too far into their lane, but was stopped (my guess, they wanted to avoid being T-boned). The other car tried to swerve to avoid a collision, however, other cars lined up on the cross street prevented that from happening.The driver hits the car in the intersection, bounces off and jumps the curb, over some rock landscaping, and into a car wash parking lot. Normally this lot would be closed or at least barely used in February as I'm in the north and it's generally cold. But, as I mentioned earlier, it was a warm morning and was going to be a warm day. It was also a Saturday, so people with the day off were looking to clean the winter salt, sand and other winter grime off their cars. This driver, by the luck of the draw, somehow managed to squeeze his car into the bustling car wash and get stopped before hitting anything else.This is not a picture from that day, but there was a car at or near the crosswalk underneath where the truck is in the picture, but even so, you can see there's not a lot of space between that crosswalk, the stoplight pole, the vacuums in the carwash lot, as well as cars that were scattered around the lot that day. This kid missed everything in that small area and stopped his car.As I was not involved in the accident, I went on my merry way as the dry cleaners was just a couple blocks away. I dropped my clothes off and drove to the interstate, about 15 minutes, then realized, the cop will to have no choice but to issue that poor person turning left a ticket for failing to yield right of way. I had my wife look up the number to the nearby precinct and give them my information as I wanted to be a witness to the accident. The responding officer called me back just as I was sitting down to eat with my family. I provided all the details that were and still are clear in my head. I said I didn't think the car turning should receive a ticket, and that's why I wanted to provide a statement.A few weeks later, I got a summons to appear in court to testify. Yuck. Court date got changed twice. Finally, day of court, seems like the case I was there for was one of the last ones called. Just before it was called, the district attorney pulled the driver into the hallway. They came back in with an agreement for him to plead guilty to a lesser charge, I think original charge was reckless driving. They no longer needed me, though they probably used my presence as leverage as they had someone to testify against him. Yay for missing a morning of work for nothing. I did get a chance to talk to the other driver though. She said she initially was issued a ticket, but the police or attorneys office reviewed the video from the intersection and dropped her failure to yield charge. Hopefully my witness statement played a role in that.So, while that didn't literally get me to stop and think about what I just saw, I did play that over in my mind a few times while driving before realizing what I just saw, then realizing that I should call the police.

I don’t think that there is a standard. More now it depends on how well a city is prepared to deal with the snow, how often it occurs, and the politics of it all.When Atlanta had an ice storm a few years back the city was crippled for a week since they were unprepared not having had to deal or budget for this scenario for recent past. Here in NYC, you can count on media to make a story out of any storm on a slow news day. Count on the salt trucks to be sitting on wait by the highway when the storm might just well fizzle out lest the current mayor’s administration be criticized. Even at my Coop, the overtime bonanza is in full force with small storms. The Mexican should brigade is out there trying to catch the snow in their shovels. If it really snows then …. well… might as well dig yourself out rather then wait.I’d bet things are under control in Boston, Chicago, and Minneapolis where you can navigate most of the city without going outside in the winter.Parking lots are the responsibility of the property manager and not the city. Unless the city workers take money on the side, then they have to fend for themselves. City trucks are mostly busy the first couple of days but their are many private profiteers that own plow for their pickups.

I personally use rock salt treated with calcium chloride on my commercial properties that I’m contracted for. Both on the parking lot and sidewalks.The calcium chloride lowers the working temperature of the salt a lot. Plain rock salt actually loses a lot of its melting ability as temps get below 20degrees F, while the blend of liquid calcium chloride I use as treatment is rated for -29F.The treated salt does cost more, but that is offset in using less salt to get the same amount of melting but at a much lower temperature. The property managers greatly appreciate the lower usage of salt due to it being hard on concrete, asphalt, plant life, etc.I also have lowered my costs by running a pre-wet system. It sprays calcium chloride onto the rock salt as it comes out of my salt hopper and is spread. Besides the lower working temperature it activates the salt and gets it melting the ice faster.I made a broadcast spray nozzle for my liquid system to allow me to pretreat parking lots. It helps to prevent the ice from bonding to the pavement and building up and will reliably melt 1–2” if snow even in the dead of MN winters!