Three trucks loaded with road salt Thursday rumbled out of Albina Yard’s Gate 2, onto North Mississippi Avenue and potentially into Portland transportation history.
Such is the significance of salt in the Portland zeitgeist.
Portland Bureau of Transportation planned to deploy the road salt on an as-needed basis Thursday night in three corridors: the Southeast 112th and Mount Scott Boulevard intersection or on North Going Street and the Channel Avenue-Lagoon Avenue loop on Swan Island. With an improving forecast, officials doubted salt would be needed on Southwest Terwilliger as soon as the other two locations.
“The Friday morning commute could be treacherous,” PBOT spokesperson Dylan Rivera said moments after the last of three trucks loaded with salt left the agency’s storage yard on Mississippi near Fargo Street.
Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Transportation Bureau, announced earlier this week that the city purchased 100 tons of rock salt for $20,000. The amount is considered enough to treat the three targeted roads.
The salt was purchased after Portland officials were pelted with criticism over the city’s response to prolonged stretches of snow and ice on roads this winter. In addition to spreading road salt – which the bureau has avoided because of its potential damaged to cars and infrastructure as well as harm to the environment – the city is adding 340 lane miles to its plow routes. That’s a 30 percent increase over the 1,120 lane miles they typically clear.
The city purchased the sale from a supplier in Greeley, Colorado, Rivera said. The substance had a red tint so it would be visible to road crews and would absorb sunlight and melt snow and ice faster, he said.
“We used the same supplier as we use for magnesium chloride,” Rivera said of the salt, which until Thursday had been the city’s sole go-to melting weapon against snow and ice – other than relying on the season’s typically mild winter temperatures returning.
Corrosive grit is blended into the mix for traction and, Rivera said, it has additives so the salt would not be as corrosive to roads, bridges and vehicles as typical road salt.
While the city in recent years resisted the use of salt on roads, Rivera said salt would be added to the department’s arsenal in the future “on a limited strategic basis.” The type of salt product used may be changed in the future, he added.
As for salt’s historical significance in Portland, it’s claim to fame in the city is only a recent one. Salt has been used before on Portland city streets, Rivera said, just not in at least the past 30 years.
–Allan Brettman
abrettman@oregonian.com
503-294-5900
@allanbrettman
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
