In the wake of two severe snowstorms that first began Jan. 12, the roads in the City of Madison remain covered in snow and have been accountable for 120 car crashes and 29 injuries, according to the Cap Times.
As temperatures warmed, the City of Madison’s Street Division started to remove snow through plowing and salting efforts that began 3:00 p.m. Tuesday and went into the night, according to the division’s website.
Previous efforts taken by the city to address the unfavorable road conditions were solely to plow the streets rather than add salt. This decision was made due to the potential risks that salting the roads poses, according to City of Madison spokesperson Bryan Johnson.
When salt is added to the roads, a chemical reaction occurs that warms the snow, effectively turning it into water. In extremely cold conditions, the speed of the reactions slows, causing the salt to be ineffective, Johnson said. This increases the water content on the roads, which may freeze over and create driving hazards.
“For salt we want pavement temperatures over twenty degrees because that works better for the maximum application rate that we have because we don’t want to apply salt at more than three-hundred pounds per lane mile,” Johnson said. “Once it gets colder than twenty degrees, salt at that maximum application rate becomes less effective.”
Additionally, the use of salt for roads has been tied to the increased salinity levels in freshwater lakes, which has precarious effects to the ecosystem, according to Michigan State University.
The University of Wisconsin’s Outdoor Salt Use policy restricts and monitors the amount of salt used on campus in an effort to manage the run-off that ends up in Madison’s lakes.
“We want to be cautious with our salt use because of the unique relationship we have with our lakes,” Johnson said. “All of the storm drains lead to the two lakes that we have, and the salinity of freshwater has been going up. It’s not just a Madison thing, it’s a worldwide thing.”
Despite the city having successfully managed roads through previous storms, the combination of heavy snowfall followed by sub fifteen-degree weather this winter proved to pose more challenges, according to Johnson.
The city has never had a cold stretch this long beginning with a snowstorm, Johnson said.
“We’ve had severe snowstorms, but the temperature has always been not that brutal on the backend of it,” Johnson said. “Having those two [storms] back-to-back like that wound up where we were stuck for a week in snow.”
While the Streets Division works to alleviate road conditions, many campus routes used by students may remain blocked as the university is solely responsible for clearing these paths, Johnson said. Individuals who face difficulties on the road have the option to report the issue through the City of Madison’s “Report A Problem” system.
