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→Salt Alternatives
===Sand===
===Sand===
Property managers often turn to sand as an alternative to salt, as it is thought to be a less harmful option. Sand has been used, either on its own or mixed with salt, as a core part of many municipalities’ or individual property managers’ winter maintenance practices. It is used similarly to rock salt as it is applied to increase friction between snowy or icy pavement and the vehicles/pedestrians passing over it. Of those municipalities that use sand, rural ones with a higher proportion of gravel roads use almost exclusively sand (with a small percentage of salt mixed in to prevent freezing and caking), while other municipalities often use a sand-salt mix at various ratios
The general issues with sand are that:
*Most sand applied blows off the road within relatively few (e.g. 8-12) vehicle passes at speeds over 40 km/hr (general speed limits of most municipal subdivision streets); rendering any improvement in friction temporary, at best.
*Pre-wetting can held sand adhere to the road, but there is little to no increase in its friction coefficient even with this pretreatment approach.
*When sand mixes with melting snow it doesn't embed itself in the snow but rather becomes more of a slushy mixture that accumulates on the side of roads, or worse within SWM features (catch basins, stormwater ponds, etc.).
**The associated cost municipalities incur are due to additional effort and the cost of sweeping up this material at the end of the season to reduce the environmental impacts.
*Due to contamination of the sand, disposal is becoming a more complicated, and therefore costly process that fewer and fewer municipalities are adopting.
To read more about [https://sustainabletechnologies.ca/app/uploads/2020/03/Sand-vs-Salt-tech-brief.pdf LSRCA's Technical Bulletin: Sand versus Salt]<ref>LSRCA. 2018. Sand versus Salt: Should sand be used for winter maintenance? Technical Bulletin, Volume 1 October 2018. https://sustainabletechnologies.ca/app/uploads/2020/03/Sand-vs-Salt-tech-brief.pdf</ref>
document exploring the efficacy of the use of sand for winter maintenance, its associated environmental issues, and where its use is most appropriate, visit the link above.
==Design Strategies for Salt Reduction==
==Design Strategies for Salt Reduction==