Submitted by: Submitted by billyee
Views: 464
Words: 551
Pages: 3
Category: Science and Technology
Date Submitted: 01/13/2011 07:16 PM
what is the Use of Salt in cleaning the Roads, and is it worth the money? is there a better way than using salt?
This article is on the use of NaCl in cleaning the icy or snowed up roads, how
does it work, how much does it cost, and is there a better solution. Iced roads are a
problem that can and has been solved, by the county with, salt. The way that this works is
that NaCl is dissolved into the H2O, and when it dissolves it adds more compounds into
the H2O and thus the freezing point of the water gets lower. Salt is most effect around the
temperature of 20 degrees, and anything lower would make it not work. However, NaCl
would be releasing 2 particles when it dissolves, when other compounds could possibly
be dissolving more, for example, NH4)2SO4 or CaCl2. These would decrease the freezing
point more than NaCl, but they have side effects like damaging concrete, and making
roads slippery. That’s why NaCl is used. NaCl is also more accessible and easier to get,
even though the price seem high. The amount of salt Baltimore City has on hand is
136,000 tons, and the Maryland Highway administration has 234,000 tons. And it costs
around 25 to 50$ per ton. The tons of NaCl can be mined in salt mines in many places in
the world. Baltimore City gets it from a salt mine in Chile. There is also an environmental
impact that many environmentalists aren’t too happy about. The salt has been known to
disturb wildlife and increase salinity level in the Chesapeake bay, but it often stored
properly and the run off does not do too much harm.
Mike Ollove.. "The solution for what scares you is NaCl Winter blues: When the weather
outside is frightful, salt on the roads is so delightful. The plow is turned way down
low; let it snow, let it snow, let it snow:[FINAL Edition]."The Sun [Baltimore,
Md.]23 Feb.2001,1E.The Sun, Baltimore.ProQuest. Robinson Media Center. 31
Mar. 2009
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