A Field Investigation on Ice Melting Capacities of Road Salt in Extreme Cold Weather Conditions in Ottawa, Canada

This paper presents the preliminary results of a three-year research project on the effectiveness of deicers and their alternatives for snow and ice control in northern climates. This paper reviews the initial five field experiments that were conducted during the Winter of 2022. Tests were conducted in the field environment to achieve results that can be attributed to real world scenarios. For the five tests, rock salt-sodium chloride (NaCl) was used to determine the percentage bare pavement regain at different time intervals. The study evaluates the percentage bare pavement for three loading rates of 5 lbs/1000 ft2, 10 lbs/1000 ft2 and 20 lbs/1000 ft2 and compares them to a control section where no salt was applied. The results of this experiment show that these salting rates were not promising for winter road maintenance. These unfavorable results were obtained due to factors with the extreme cold temperature and the large amount of snow that needed to be melted. These test results are limited to sidewalks and parking lots without traffic effects, as there were no vehicles present on the lot, while these tests were performed.