HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – Harris County Precinct 3 will be using a new method to de-ice roadways this winter.
In a video posted on Facebook, Harris County Pct. 3 Commissioner Tom S. Ramsey said the precinct’s new brine program is the first of its kind in the county.
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Rather than laying out traditional chatrock, the precinct will be using a brine solution to chemically break up ice on the roadways.
“During the last freeze season, we realized that with the size of our new precinct that we needed to adapt to be able to cover our over 300 bridges and 6,700 lane miles of roadway to keep them open and safe during winter conditions,” said road and bridge director Jennifer Almonte.
Almonte said they realized chatrock, which they had been using, would not be adequate to meet their needs.
“Brine is much cheaper, it is applied more quickly, and we can use it to pretreat the roadways, we don’t have to return to camp to get more material and we can cover an entire route with one tank,” Almonte said. “It’s much more environmentally friendly, it doesn’t create a big mess on the roadway for traveling vehicles, so you are not going to have pieces of rock flying up on to your windshield.”