Highway salt applied at the wrong time may be wasted. Salt applied at the wrong rate for conditions may be wasted. Apply it at too high a rate, and salt is left over after the melting is complete. If salt is applied too slowly, it may have to be reapplied.
Since 1993 the New Brunswick Department of Transportation has been installing ground speed spreader controls in snowplows. These computerized spreader controls, now the standard in New Brunswick’s snowplow fleet, read the truck’s travel speed and apply salt at the correct rate regardless of variations in speed.
The controls also allow the operator to easily make precise adjustments to the application rate according to conditions.
The computerized controls provide a record of the amount of salt and application rates used that can be incorporated in the supervisor’s daily salt use reporting.