Salt – More Than Just a Household Ingredient

Salt is more than something to sprinkle on to your fish and chips, this common household ingredient helps keeps England’s roads moving.

As temperatures are forecast to remain cold across the country, Highways England’s army of workers are ready 24/7 to descend on to our motorways and major A roads in a fleet of gritters, to keep traffic moving.

The company stores around 280,000 tonnes of salt at its 127 depots, spread across the country at strategic locations but salt has already come on a long journey before it leaves the depots to reach its final destination on the road. Its journey from salt mine to our roads is explained in the full article on the Highways England website.

Highways England’s National Winter and Severe Weather Team Leader, Paul Furlong said: ‘Salt works by lowering the freezing point of moisture on the road surface, so that it has to be colder before it can turn to ice. In order for it to become really effective, dry salt has to form a brine solution on the road surface.

‘It is this brine that is responsible for lowering the temperature at which water freezes on the road surface to prevent ice from forming. To make this process occur quicker our vehicles spread concentrated brine on to dry salt as it is spread, which helps the salt react more quickly.’

Paul also appealed to motorists to give plenty of space to gritters: ‘When spreading salt our gritters will have all their amber beacons flashing and will be travelling no faster than 40mph. Our vehicles could be found in any lane, although on standard 3-lane motorways they will often be in the middle lane, so we would encourage drivers to give them enough space. When snow ploughing, our vehicles will be found working on our roads at speeds around 20mph, so drivers are urged to drive with particular care during snow conditions.’