AED Foundation & SkillsUSA Illinois Support Skilled Trades
Jessica Schwartz
Achieving Liquidity In Snow Services
ICYMI: Winter’s not done with us yet–which means salting, spreading, and plowing aren’t done with us yet either. Find out how John Langton’s crew at Langton Group in Woodstock, IL makes salt brine profitable. The good, bad, and profit potential of liquids. What many snow operators don’t realize is that they’re already using liquids in some way. When applying rock salt and pre-wetting or using treated salt, you are using liquids as an accelerant to speed up the melting process. Even when you are using just rock salt, you are still using liquids. Let me explain. You apply rock salt to a coating of snow, the rock salt uses the liquid in the snow to mix into a liquid salt brine, which then effectively lowers the freezing point, turning the snow into liquid! Now that we realize we all have experience using liquids at some level, let’s talk about what holds most contractors back from going all in. Most people fear change. We get caught up in the “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” mentality. Here’s the problem with that: the system is broken. Applications of bulk rock salt are often more than what is needed to get the job done safely. Liquids can help with achieving lower application rates on both pre- and post-event treatments. Additionally, it can dramatically lower application rates on post treatments, even if you choose to apply bulk rock salt at that point. What holds most contractors back is slip and fall liability, capital ...
Hitting The Road: Brine, Beets & Other Thanksgiving Treats
Chances are, there will be a lot of talk of brine this week. And while most conversations will focus on brining the turkey, landscapers in snow management think of brine a little differently. Increasingly used as a pre-treatment for roadways ahead of a winter weather event, brine is a solution of water and salt with a third ingredient thrown in to help the brine stick to the road surface. What that third ingredient is has become an interesting—and sometimes humorous—reflection of the geographic area in which it is used. In a search for cost effective and eco-friendly alternatives, brine recipes have come to involve all sorts of byproducts from the food industry, some of which may be gracing tables on Thursday. Reports of brine recipes since 2014 have included wine-making byproduct in Argentina; cheese byproducts in Wisconsin; potatoes in Tennessee; pickle juice in New Jersey; molasses in Maine and New Hampshire; and beet juice in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, and North Dakota. So far, it seems, beet juice has had the most “sticking” power over the years. In Washington, D.C., this year’s District Snow Team consists of 882 employees, a 296-vehicle fleet (including 120 heavy plows, 100 light plows, and 46 100% biodiesel plows), 42,000 tons of salt, 86,000 gallons of brine and… 10,500 gallons of raw beet juice. (According to a 2015 article in the Washington Post, the recipe involves 23% salt, 62% water, and 15% beet juice. The 2014/15 winter required 25,000 gallons of beet juice, a budget item ...
