KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Weather isn't always on our side in Knoxville, but this time it appears to be working in the city's favor, at least. And it's going to save Knoxville taxpayers nearly $22,000.
Unlike much of the snow Knoxville receives, heavy rain is not forecast on the front-end of the snow system. This allows for the city to be more selective of the type of treatment they want to use to keep roads safe.
This time around, crews were able to use salt brine. Salt brine is an effective liquid solution for pre-treating roadways to fight snow and ice. It works to lower the freezing point of snow and ice.
Chad Weth with Knoxville Public Works said salt brine is incredibly effective in combating up to 2 inches of snow. However, rain ruins its magic because it washes the treatment away.
"Most storms come in as rain first. We are unable to use brine just because the rain will wash the salt brine off," Weth said.
It takes the team at Knoxville Public Works between 10 and 14 hours to lay out all the salt brine. They cover roughly 470 lane miles of road.
They haven't been able to do this pre-treatment brine in any of the snow showers we saw in the past three years due to rainy pre-snow conditions.
Salt costs about $80 a ton, and one ton of salt can make roughly 870 gallons of brine. The city said it needs 23 tons of salt to cover the 470 lane miles, which amounts for around $1,800 in salt prices.
This is abundantly less than the price of salting after-the fact. It takes 308 tons of salt, and costs about $24,000 to do 470 lane miles.
This lucky weather pattern could save Knoxvillians $22,000.
"It's a lot more expensive to do straight salt than brine,” Weth said.
There is always the possibility that the snow could be more than expected, in which case the city will be prepared to deploy salt trucks.
However, we can cross our fingers that the weather will continue to be on our side.