– It annoys me to no end with that saltiness, says Eli Kari Gjengedal, known, among other things, as a weather presenter on TV 2.
He emphasizes that he is speaking from his experience as a private individual on the use of road salt.
Gjengedal lives in Bergen, where heavy snow fell in mid-December. Then the county council brought out the salt machines.
The salting of the city’s sidewalks receives a negative rating from Gjengedal:
– What’s wrong with good old-fashioned plowing or snow removal from sidewalks? We waded through the salt snow. That just makes it so much worse; it gets more slippery and harder to walk on, almost like a sandy beach, he tells Dagbladet and adds:
– It was just a complete disaster.
BOTTOM: Snow was thick in the Bergen area in mid-December. Here on the E39 in Fjøsangerveien. Photo: Norwegian Public Roads Administration / NTB webcam
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– Broken
State Meteorologist John Smits went out earlier this week in Varingen and slaughtered the Romerike Salt Flat in Viken County. He gets full support from Gjengedal:
– In my corridor it is now completely white with salt. The stains are all over the floor, the shoes are ruined, she says disconsolately.
To have safe pavements along county roads, we remove the snow mechanically and then it becomes salty, otherwise it becomes slippery, says director of infrastructure and roads department in Vestland county municipality, Dina Lefdal.
– These are our guidelines. Many pavements in Bergen are the responsibility of council or homeowners and we cannot be held responsible for them.
The director of the department says that they see on those days, where it snows so heavily as in Bergen, that it can become milky; that the salt mixes with the fresh snow before they are plowed again.
– It’s nearly impossible to avoid these days. But it gets slippery and can become a dangerous situation if we don’t plan. We have to assess the need and measures for each situation and try to make it as safe as possible for pedestrians during the winter, Lefdal continues.
Dagbladet has given the municipality a chance to respond to the criticisms, but has yet to hear back.
“Danish conditions”
“It’s now become Danish conditions on Romerike,” state meteorologist John Smits wrote in a comment field under a Facebook news article, according to ferns.
The article was by Romerikes Blad and talked about challenging driving conditions due to slippery roads on Romerike last weekend.
“The incorrect and unnecessary use of salt unfortunately makes driving conditions more difficult than they should be with the weather we had last week and today. After driving today, it also appears that some people are still driving on summer tires ‘ wrote Smiths.
SALT MACHINE: This is what it looks like when road salt is sprinkled on the streets. Illustrative photo of Filipstadkaia in Oslo, taken in 2019. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB
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– Stands in a corner
In front of Varingen, the meteorologist points out that he spoke as a private person.
He therefore believes the weather and traffic conditions last weekend were an example of when road salt works against its purpose.
– When it’s cold and the asphalt is bare, the salt binds the humidity that freezes on the asphalt. It has to be salted again and again all the time. You paint yourself in a corner. And if you salt dry snow in cold weather, the salt cannot melt the snow. Instead, it becomes a powdered sugar-like, semi-dry concoction that sticks to the tires instead of giving a better grip, Smits explains to the paper.
STATE METEOROLOGIST: John Smits works at the Blindern Meteorological Institute in Oslo, but spoke as a road salt depriver. Photo: Tore Meek/NTB
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Construction manager Halvard H. Nyland from the Operations and Maintenance Department in Viken County Municipality points out to Varingen that they use the Norwegian Road Administration’s salt instructions.
– Our focus is primarily on mechanical snow removal, where salt is used as an aid. It is therefore important to specify that salt is not used to melt the snow, the so-called chemical plowing. Viken County Council strives to use as little salt as possible to keep roads good, passable and safe for traffic, he told the paper, among other things.
Swedish Road Administration: ‘It’s not fair’
The Swedish road administration even denies on its website that salting causes a cold mixture that makes the road slippery:
“The temperature is lowered when we use salt to remove ice, but it is incorrect that this process by itself leads to spontaneous refreezing and slippery roads,” they write, among other things.
The Swedish road administration then explains that the smelting process will never drop below what will ultimately be the freezing point of the saline solution.
“The saline solution is therefore still liquid and by itself does not provide a smooth road surface,” they write.
