Road Brine Pre-Treatment
Enhance Winter Road Safety
Sodium chloride (salt) road brine is widely used in cold regions as a pre-treatment before ice storms to prevent ice from bonding to surfaces, which helps reduce the formation of black ice. Pre-treating with brine allows surfaces to return to normal faster, reducing the risk of accidents and injuries.
Since salt requires moisture to activate, brine provides the necessary water to enhance the melting process. This increased efficiency not only reduces the amount of salt needed but also helps minimize environmental impact. Here are four advantages of pre-treating with road brine:
Cost-effective: Making your own brine saves transportation costs. Salt is spread more evenly and stays where you put it, unlike rock salt. Crews can cover more area by applying before the storm.
Safer result: Pre-treating returns surfaces to normal faster, resulting in fewer accidents or injuries.
Jumpstarts melting: Salt needs water to work. Brine supplies the moisture to aid in the melting process.
Increased efficiency: Using brine results in using less salt, minimizing environmental impact.
What's required?
Tap on Brine Line to Draw Brine
This can be added at no charge by The Cope Company Salt. Just give us a call.
Spray Equipment
Various types of commercial spray applicators can be used with your existing vehicles. Most customers use small push-cart sprayers, tank-mounted 4-wheelers, or 250-gallon totes on the back of pickup trucks.
How Does it Work?
Temperature is Important
Road brine works well in the mid-Atlantic region. 100% Brine will work on surface temps down to approximately 15°F and should not be used below this temperature.
Lower Temperatures
To obtain a lower melting point with brine, you can dilute the 100% brine to make an 85% brine by adding 1/2 gallon of fresh water to 4 gallons of 100% brine. 85% brine solution will lower the melting point to –6°F.
Timing is Critical
Watching the weather so the brine can be applied hours before a storm will give the best results. Additional applications can be put down after the ice and snow are removed.
Customer Reviews
“We [pre-treated] all our sidewalks the first season after our system was installed and for the first time, we had NO slip-and-fall injuries due to ice on the walks. The employees love us.”
Lancaster Labs, SH
“We love it! [Pre-treating] works great. We watch the weather and when the township starts pre-treating, so do we. We have a large retirement complex and we cut our ice melt usage and increased our safety by using the brine for pre-treating. We used over 10,000 [brine] gallons last season.”