ALGER COUNTY -- Winter in Upper Michigan means snow, and that makes for dangerously slick roads.
U.P. road commissions work around the clock, putting down salt and sand to make roads safer. But when do they use salt, and when do they use sand?
Plows rumbling down the roads are a welcome site during the winter, but they're often doing more than just plowing--salt and sand are typically being put down.
Most people know salt will help melt frozen roads, so why even bother with sand?
"As the temperatures get down below ten degrees, salt becomes less and less effective. We tend, in really cold temperatures, to use sand or a salt-sand mix," said Alger County Road Commission Manager, Bob Linbeck.
What salt does is react with water, frozen or liquid, and lowers its melting point. But that melting point only lowers to about ten degrees, and temperatures routinely get colder than that.
"The last thing we want to do is melt that surface and have it refreeze in the form of ice on those extremely cold days. So we try to get some sand out there to try to give some friction under the tires," Lindbeck added.
The sand is actually mixed with a bit of salt, but only to keep the sand from freezing into rock-hard chunks in storage.
"In most cases we plow the snow, then apply salt to get to bare pavement. If we're getting continuous snowfall, you probably won't see us salting. We're just gonna keep getting snow off the road, and we'll just stay in that mode," Lindbeck said.
Lindbeck is also careful to point out you should stay at least 100 feet behind and away from the plows as visibility can be poor, and the salt rocks can chip paint and windshields at close range.
And, as always, slowing down in the snow is a good idea.
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