I was thoroughly unimpressed with the job that the state did cleaning our roads yesterday. Route 6 was a disaster. I wonder when the state will try this beet juice thing in our county.
By Robert Thomson,Washington Post Staff Writer
Maryland has introduced a new element into its snow-fighting plan: beet juice. Mix sugar beet molasses with salt brine and you have an environmentally friendly — and stickier — way of preparing roads for snow and ice. As the winter approaches, all the region's transportation agencies are organizing plans to attack storms before they attack us. They say the squeeze on government revenue will not impede their snow-clearing efforts. [...]
The beet juice, also used in the District since 2007, smells like ground cigarette butts and old coffee. It goes down on the road like flat soda — very sticky — and helps the salt brine adhere to the surface so it lasts longer and has more of a melting effect once ice and snow arrive. The non-corrosive solution will be used this winter in a pilot project on the roads of Frederick and Howard counties. (read more)
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
2 responses so far ↓
1 Marie // Dec 21, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Well, the county road in front of my house hasn’t been touched by county road services at all yet. No salt, no plow. Beet juice sounds good to me — even if it does smell like ground cigarette butts and old coffee. To be honest, I’d prefer the relatively temporary smell to the butt trash of my state-licensed, chain-smokin’ (registered as a non-smoking home) day care provider neighbor. At least there’s an “up” side to stinky beet juice.
2 Marie // Dec 22, 2009 at 3:09 pm
The county snow plows have just gone through my development. At this point, the question is, “Why bother?” Our neighbor took his front end loader through the development because the roads had not been touched and no one with a passenger car could get out at all. I wonder if the county will reimburse him for his services, or maybe we could designate a specific portion of OUR tax dollars specifically to HIM? Right now, our tax dollars are paying for services on a county contract, services that are totally OBE.
By the way, no salt is being put down by either of these two trucks. Just the blade…and creating heavy snow walls in front of all of our already-cleared driveways. Thanks a lot, Mr. Staples (CC Roads Div) et al.
You must log in to post a comment.