Reduced Road Salt Spillage Owing to Indoor Delivery and Loading
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 2
Abstract
The authors analyze runoff and road salt delivery and loading data from an indoor salt storage facility in eastern Massachusetts over multiple deicing seasons. The facility converted its delivery/loading from outdoors to indoors. Data and simple theory document a fivefold decrease in spillage as a result of the conversion. A seasonally varying balance of first order dissolution and a spill fraction is used to quantify the improvement; the data and model suggest that 0.3% of the outdoor delivered/loaded road salt spilled onto the pavement. The conversion to indoor delivery/loading reduced the spillage fraction to 0.06%.
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Acknowledgments
MassHighway funded this research under Interagency Service Agreement 56565 with the Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst. The views, opinions, and findings contained in this paper are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect the official view or policies of MassHighway. This paper does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.
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© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 24, 2010
Accepted: Jul 19, 2011
Published online: Jul 21, 2011
Published in print: Feb 1, 2012
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