Thirty public works officials representing 20 different towns in Maine recently gathered together to review the merits of a pre-treated, winter salt stockpile for use in snowstorm applications.

Held February 28 at the Howard Johnson's hotel in South Portland, Maine, the seminar provided an overview of chemical de-icers currently available for the snow and ice management of public roadways. An emphasis was placed on a magnesium chloride based product, Ice B'Gone, for pre-treating road salt, with a tour of a local Ice B'Gone treated salt inventory managed by Sprague Energy Corp. included for interested participants.

The event was sponsored jointly by the Innovative Company and the International Salt Company. Innovative Company representatives Daren Crawford and Lauren Montenegro and International Salt Company representative Arthur Bush outlined the state-of-the-art pavement de-icing technologies being practiced in the region today. Attendees received both technical data and practical information taken from academic, state DOT and federal DOT publications and research white papers.

Daren Crawford led the two-hour presentation, highlighting the benefits of using the International Salt Company product pre-treated with Innovative's magnesium chloride-based product. Among these:

• up to 60-percent reduction of road salt "bounce and scatter" during pavement applications
• elimination of sand use
• working temperature for road salt down to zero degrees pavement temperature compared to 18 degrees Fahrenheit for untreated salt
• reduced road salt application rates per lane mile while providing equal or greater performance in preventing ice pack on the pavement surface
• elimination of corrosion to metal on application trucks, roadway structures and traffic

Some 20 truckloads of the Innovative Company Ice B'Gone magnesium chloride treated salt were purchased by Maine municipal officials at the conclusion of the seminar.

(Ed.: Information and photos used in this article were provided by Innovative Company.)