No progress on clearing roads
AS a schoolboy in the forties and fifties the only advance we seem to have made in combating hold ups due to snow on the roads is in purpose made spreading vehicles instead of men in open lorries with spades.
I believe I am correct in that grit is now no longer added to the mixture.
There also seems to be a chicken and egg situation where the first vehicles on the roads including buses with normal road tyres and transmissions are expected to stir the salt and snow into a mixture which thaws.
A fundamental problem from my long ago schoolboy science lessons and watching making home made ice cream on cookery lessons on television is that a mixture of salt and ice drops the temperature to well below freezing point which seems to be a serious flaw in the intentions of the process. One possible solution, no pun intended might be on main bus routes and key hills for four wheel drive or even tracked vehicles to spray a brine solution of Salt in water with added Grit onto the snow instantly producing the desired vehicle /salt mixing.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
On the very important hills perhaps one of the machines that were used to burn off old road surfaces might be modified and used.
Surely with the improvements in technology and science of the last 100 years we can improve on the methods that my grand father would recognise.
Robert Craig
Comments
by A_Mushroom
Thursday, January 24 2013, 11:26AM
“As with so many things in life, the key to realising the benefits of technological advancements is making them cost effective. There are so many ways of clearing roads of ice and keeping them clear but they come at a cost. Some are hi-tech some are lo-tech.
Airports have a greater financial incentive to keep runways clear and permit aeroplanes to take off and land so they use more expensive methods such as runway de-icing fluid, sweeping with steel brushes, but only after the old fashioned snow plough has physically shifted any standing snow. Some airports even use under surface heating. Airports cannot use standard road grit because of the highly corrosive nature of the salt content effecting very expensive aircraft.
So if a local council such as Bristol really wanted to keep the roads clear, they could, but it would come at a cost and we know the outcome of that little conundrum!
And to get even more philosophical or even political about it, why should a council spend so much money on keeping roads ice free to then have the roads clogged with traffic that is there every other day of the year even when there is no ice?!”