News Release for February 29, 2008

For More Information:
Dave Bernhardt, MaineDOT Bureau Maintenance and Operations, 624-3600
Mark Latti, MaineDOT Office of Communications, 624-3030

Salt supplies severely low

Salt supplies throughout the state are becoming seriously low.  Drivers on Maine’s secondary state roads could see a difference in road treatments if the frequency of winter storms continues and regional salt suppliers cannot keep up with regional demands. During this shortage, MaineDOT is expanding the number of low volume roads that are treated with sand, in order to conserve salt.

“We have three different suppliers for the entire state, and their stockpiles are either critically low or depleted,” said Dave Bernhardt. “Unless we get two weeks without storms, our salt supplies will become insufficient to treat all of the state’s 4,300 miles of roads.”

Drivers could see a difference in treatment methods on roads with less traffic. Motorists are encouraged to slow down on all roads.

“We will continue to treat roads and plow as we have always done,” said Bernhardt, “however, on lesser travelled roads, when we use sand instead of salt, the snowpack will linger on roads after storms until the weather warms to a point to where the snowpack starts to melt and we can remove it.”

As always, drivers are encouraged to slow down during storm events, and to drive safely.

“Unsafe speed is the number one cause of winter accidents,” said Bernhardt.

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