Tuesday morning during the Weekday Wakeup on Swift 98 and The Spur, Duke & Dahl asked listeners for their opinions on the products the Wyoming Department of Transportation uses on roads during the winter months.

Currently WYDOT pre-treats roads with a salt-brine solution that helps prevent the roads from icing over when possible.  While plowing, WYDOT typically spreads a mixture of sand with just a little salt on the roads to help provide traction.

Neighboring states such as Idaho and Utah treat icy roads with a heavier salt mixture that helps melt the ice off the roads much faster.  Although this helps melt the ice and snow off the roads faster, the salt can also cause corrosion on vehicles if left for long periods of time.

Radio listeners were asked to give their opinion, if they prefer the sand or would like to see the salt.  Below are their responses.

Use salt

“Salt! I would rather have clear roads.”

“Salt 100%. That’s what they make car washes for.”

“My experience has been, enough salt is used to cover my car but not enough to clear the roads. Travel to Utah or Idaho, their roads are clear ours patchy snowpack. More salt needs to be used.”

“More salt.”

“Less salt= more accidents!”

“I wonder what would happen if we did salt then sand to keep it from icing over as bad.”

Do not use salt

“The roads in Idaho are so much better but I would rather take it easy on Wyoming roads and stay away from the cancer salt causes on vehicles.”

“The Town of Thayne uses ash. It seems to do a good job of melting and supporting traction.”

“I like what WYDOT does. They use a sand salt mix of six percent salt the rest is sand.”

“The sand that Wyoming uses over the salt that the other states use because during and shortly after you have better traction and less black ice. You get more black ice with salt.”

“Sand . I don’t want that salt on my car.”

“Dirt. It makes it easier to see where you’re supposed to drive.”

“Wyoming does it right. Keep it with more sand.”

“It’s a matter of science. Wyoming’s temps and moisture patterns are very different than our neighboring states. More salt = more ice build up on Wyoming roads. The current sand /salt blend the state uses is designed to work on Wyoming roads. That said, I’m for volcanic ash. Works great. Doesn’t kill plants. Stores well. Is Big Bang for your buck.”

“We live in the Rockies- it snows here-if you don’t like it, leave- we will sand the road for ya!”

Other

“Good tires make all the difference regardless of sand or salt.”

“I think the roads now days are a lot better then even 10 years a go. When is the last time you have seen the roads snow packed longer then 3 or 4 days tops I remember when they was snow packed for month’s. It does not mater what WYDOT does some one will complain. When they get snow packed between storms. They do put a higher salt mix to try and get rid of it.”

“The current salt mixture makes the roads very rough either need to use more salt or less one of the other.”