A
little Magic in Keene
Author: Donna
Moxle, Staff Writer
The Keene Sentinel
Published December 12,2004
New Hampshire has a reputation for
using more salt to keep its roads clear than other New England
states. Now, a new additive promises to make a little salt go
a long way. The product goes by the name, Magic Minus Zero and
the city of Keene is trying it out for the first time.
A rough transcript (not word for word
accurate):
Magic-minus-zero is a brown, sweet-smelling
liquid sprayed on regular rock salt.
The result is "magic salt"
- a new kind of road treatment that sounds truly magical.
Keene highway foreman Bruce Tatro
says so far, magic salt has already performed one trick. It's
saved the city money.
With it, road crews use less salt.
And that's also good for the environment.
Bruce Tatro- 9:58 I've always been
interested in new technology ... I'll try it, sometimes it works,
sometimes it doesn't. Right now this seems to work.
NH Ice Melt of Manchester makes Magic-minus-zero,
and calls Keene its first customer. It's made with magnesium
chloride.
The company claims their product
cuts down dramatically on the corrosiveness of road salt, doesn't
stain roads white, and is biodegradable.
They also say magic salt works in
temperatures as low as 35-degrees-below-zero.
When the temperature gets below fifteen
degrees, regular rock salt stops working.
Until today, Keene has used magic
salt only for potential ice problems.
Highway workers spray down a layer
of the sticky mixture ahead of time, when roads are expected
to get icy.
Tatro ... 3:54 one of the big things
that I like about magic salt is you can do that pre-treatment,
so it keeps the roads safe ... you don't have to wait until
you have ice already on the road to apply it, you don't need
moisture to react with it ... 8:12 there's always something
on the pavement to prevent it from forming ice. The crew has
been able to cut in half the amount of salt it has to spread
on each mile of local road.
That savings more than recovers the
cost of the magic-minus-zero application. Today's storm
was the first real test of the magic salt will be if it prevents
ice and snow from sticking to the road after road crews come
by with snowplows.
The treatment is supposed to leave
a clear road behind a plow.
Reached in the middle of cleanup
from today's storm, Tatro said the magic salt was living up
to its name.
And Keene's roads were clear.
For NHPR news, I'm Donna Moxley.
207 North Main Street, Concord, NH 03301-5003
phone 603.228.8910 fax 603.224.6052
Content © 2004
NHPR
