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This post quoted belowQuote, originally posted by 06pvibe »If I lived in a place where snows like this were normal, I wouldn't live there long. I got tired of living w/snow and ice, and road salt, especially road salt.Made me start thinking about the road pre treatment where a liquid is sprayed onto the travel lanes of highways. It has become common here in the Northeast to see it with each winter event forecast. I'm sure it is elsewhere as well, I recently noticed it in the Carolina's along I 95.Couple this post with informal discussions I've had with other people the question came up about what is really in that liquid they spray and how does it affect our car bodies, not to mention the water aquafier just beneath our feet and the streams filled with fish.I also assumed that it is simply a dissolved solution of Calcium flakes but realize in today's chemical world that is probably simplistic. This is probably a much more heinous chemical compound than I suspect. Does anyone KNOW what is in that solution and is it any worse for our cars than the common rock salt so widely used? If so, is it worse than and what seems to be attacked by it that rock salt ignored.....if anything.Dave

Mostly salt water brine mix, sometimes calcium chloride water mix. I even heard of beet juice mix. The latter is the only one which could be considered expensive. The concept is for the water to dry out, leaving a thin even salt layer on the road instead of uneven salt pellets.

We have thet here, too. Calcium Chloride solution. It works well for melting snow but when it gets really cold the snowmelt weakens the solution and makes a nice skating rink and just like salt, is useless below -15C (ish).Still, nothing beats good ol' sand IMO!!!

You will see the Orange DOT trucks in CT with it. They have those white plastic tanks on the back of the trucks for really cold conditions that will spray what looks like a greenish color onto the roads to prevent them from icing. Works pretty well.

Quote, originally posted by star_deceiver »We have thet here, too. Calcium Chloride solution. It works well for melting snow but when it gets really cold the snowmelt weakens the solution and makes a nice skating rink and just like salt, is useless below -15C (ish)...which is why they're starting to mix the stuff with beet juice, as harryhill was saying... its got a lower freezing temp. so works well in the midwest. i think chicago snow command uses/used it but not sure. i wonder how it smells...

1st time Ive seen it here in Southern NJ. Its not wide spread around here,only used on a few roads I take driven/leaven work.