With winter weather looming and in the wake of last year’s record snowfall, a shortage in road salt has caused many states, including Wisconsin, to look for alternatives to make roads safe for drivers.

Michael Sproul, winter operations engineer for Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation, said in the last two years states all over the Midwest had record-breaking snowfall and are ordering more salt.

“There was huge demand for salt in areas where they typically don’t use salt,” Sproul said. “The vendors can’t get it out of the ground fast enough.”

The DOT orders all the salt used in the entire state of Wisconsin from the same, single vendor it has a two-year bid contract with.

“Because we’ve had the same vendor for three years now, they see us as a for sure market,” Sproul said, adding that last year’s supply ran out early, forcing them to order more salt on the public market where price increases have been the most significant.

The DOT saw an increase of 20 percent in expenditures on salt from last winter to this winter, Sproul said.

Sproul said the DOT ordered 40 percent more road salt this year based on last year’s winter.

George Dreckmann, Madison recycling coordinator, said the city saw about a $10,000 or $15,000 increase in budget expenses for salt last year.

“It’s had an impact on us certainly,” Dreckmann said. “But we have to do what we have to do.”

Dreckmann said the city always looks for ways to avoid salt to save money and for environmental purposes.

A sand mixture is used on all residential roads instead of salt, while plows and salt are used on major streets and general routes to hospitals and schools, Dreckmann said.

The state has been trying out new salt alternative products like a sodium chloride product called ice slicer, used in Rock County, that looks like sand but melts like snow.

Sproul said the process for laying salt has changed in order to cut down on having to lay more salt more often.

“If you just apply it dry and it sits on top of the road and gets blown off, we use a process called prewetting, so the salt sticks on the road and melts the ice more effectively,” Sproul said.

Sproul said the increase in price overall, especially on the open market, can also be attributed to shipping costs.

“We know it’s available,” Sproul said. “Because it is hard to get, in terms of availability, you might have to get it from Utah, and then you pay more in terms of shipping.”

High salt prices is not the only problem regarding clearing the streets during Madison winters.

Plowing around parked cars caused problems last year, causing the city of Madison to raise fines for cars in violation of alternate side parking restrictions to $60 during snow emergencies.

The restrictions, which went into effect last Friday, require cars to park on the odd numbered side of the street on odd days, and vice versa for even numbered days, between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m.