MU goes to calcium chloride to battle snow and ice

ired of sooty cinders turning your car into a shade of black with each winter snowfall?

After this winter, cinders won't be a problem as Landscape Services makes the switch to a mixture of liquid calcium chloride and rock salt to remove snow and ice from MU's roadways. Calcium chloride improves the effectiveness of rock salt, speeding up the melting process of snow and ice, and improving road traction.

The black snow (pictured above) will be a fleeting memory next winter as Landscape Services replaces cinders with a calcium chloride solution, creating better traction on roadways and drives and a cleaner MU.

During a three-inch snow storm, only two applications of calcium chloride and rock salt solution are needed - one during, and one after the storm - as compared with multiple coatings of cinders.

"The Missouri Department of Transportation uses this method," says Tom Flood, superintendent of Landscape Services. "It creates less mess, which means less cleanup while promoting safer roads."

Landscape Services personnel presently use cinders obtained from the CF power plant, applying them some three or four times - before, during and after a snow - to campus roadways and drives.

"The downside of using cinders is that we have to keep reapplying them to maintain traction on MU's roadways," said Flood. Flood also said there is a lot of cleanup required when people track the cinders into campus buildings.

Cinders also routinely clog storm sewers and, when tracked indoors, are hard on carpeting and floors.

To make the transition, Landscape Services is building a storage unit that will hold up to 150 tons of rock salt and constructing a 2,000-gallon tank in which to store the calcium chloride solution.

The only problem Landscape Services will face is fine-tuning the amount of the calcium chloride and rock salt mixture to use during snow and ice storms.

"You have to take into account the temperature, amount of precipitation and how fast you need to act," says Flood. "But, next winter, this will give us a more proactive approach to snow-removal."