All this salt...

the sea

dissolved in billions of gallons of water? nah not been a prob in my memory....

european ski resorts sprinkle gravel on roads without attempting to melt it at all - presumably at the end of winter they can shovel it all up again and recycle??

JimK

Guy from either SEPA or the EA was on TV recently and asked this same question and that was his answer ...diluted so much it will do no harm

The RAF put tons of Urea on the North Yorkshire runways instead of salt. Apparently it doesn't attack their aicraft in the same way as salt does. Mind you the run-off ends up down river at York where it upsets the local water company as it causes the coating inside old lead pipes to come away and expose lead to the drinking water

When I was stationed at RAF Kinloss we had a couple of Nimrod Gas Turbine engines fixed to a fuel bowser, and an engineer (sooty) sat in between the 2 engines controlling the throttles as the bowser drivers drove around the runway/pan blowing at melting the snow/ice away.

Worked a treat, and runway was never closed with this approach. don't see these things around any more.

Did he end up with a posthumus Darwin award? :)

In this day and age Health and Safety would never allow something like that to be done. Think of the furore if Sooty was cremated due to a fuel leak. Apparantly you can't even clear the snow on the path in front of your house without the risk of being sued if someone slips.

I have a weed burner torch connected to a bbq gas bottle. Works ok on packed ice but don't use it now as the neighbours will think I'm even more of a nutter. Just clear the snow as it drops and sprinkle rock salt down.

Talking of rock salt spreading, I had a real gripe watching a news item yesterday. A group of council workers were shovelling salt onto paths like they were laying a gravel drive! I was told the most effective way to put salt down is to lay it thinly as it doesn't need much salt to take an effect. The only way you can achieve that is to grab some salt and throw it like you are sowing seeds. If you follow a gritting lorry you can barely see the salt on the road.

Dave.

Dave Starling wibbled on Saturday 09 January 2010 12:54

The only way to live is to ignore media inspired nonsense like this. I've cleared mine and a 2mx3m section of the highway (so any poor sod sliding down our road might be able to stop at the end before sliding out of the junction). Got plenty of happy waves from car drivers. Don't expect to be sued...

I like that approach :)

Indeed. I threw ash down on the pavement and my drive, but for the road, being concerned that some ash (wood anyway, not sure about coal) can be corrosive to modern (read useless water based) car paints, I lobbed a bit of sand down followed by the only salt I had - about 1/3kg of table salt. It was a pathetic amount, but it worked.

It is however blowing a blizzard outside so I'll have to go and do it again...

It's popular bollocks, but bollocks nonetheless.

If you do something like clear it with a burner, but leave it wet so it freezes and hence more dangerous, you might be liable, but if you're reasonable about it you'll be fine.

When I started in insurance nearly 40 years ago we explained the need for personal liability insurance by saying you might accidentally pole someone's eye out with an umbrella. They still haven't banned them. You only have to act reasonably. Personal liability and occupiers liability are both usually included with contents insurance. My wife is a health and safety professional with a county council. We have done our best to clear the pavement outside and a path to our front door. In Germany you have to - by law!

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Clive George" saying something like:

Exactly. Best efforts and all that. It certainly doesn't remove the onus on the pedestrian to be careful where they put their feet.

In message , Camdor wrote

Santapod Raceway, Northampton, (Poddington WWII airfield runway) has a large jet engine on a trailer for drying the track. Cars with slick tyres don't accelerate to 300+ mph in the wet :)

Just bumped into this on the BBC website re snow clearance.

I was trying to find a video of one in action the other day (suitable response to someone saying they were using a leaf-blower to try and move snow) but came up empty. Various photos of the kit itself around, but none of them actually running :-(

Risk assessments and all that... :-)

As it happens on Christmas Eve, we didn't clear our drive, but the neighbour opposite did (dug and brushed). When I went round that evening delivering cards locally, I had to knock on their door and warn them that if they stepped outside they'd be better walking on the uncleared bit as the cleared section was lethal.

SteveW

In article , Alan scribeth thus

They tried one on the railways once but the trouble was not only did it get rid of the snow rather quickly it took most of the track ballast with it!..

Such was the blast from the engine;!..

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Frank Erskine saying something like:

With any luck by the time I've filled out the thirty page form the thaw will have happened.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Steve Walker saying something like:

Ah, but there's a second action needed - to periodically sprinkle salt, ashes, etc to keep it non-slippy. I've been doing just that at my place and one sprinkling of salt on a cleared section keeps it clear for a couple of days - not of course, any good under a fresh fall of snow, but it's all a matter of a bit of common. I got quite sensitised to this when I went arseovertit at the top of a small stairway (mine) on Boxing Day - bruised a few ribs and felt it for more than a week.

The trouble was it went like that within a couple of hours. I know he sprinkled salt when he cleared it, so was very surprised when it iced so quickly, qlthough it was mighty cold. Ash would be good, but who has it in suburban areas these days?

SteveW

Pretty much what a lawyer just said on Radio 4, so I went out and cleared the pavement.

The company lawyer at a previous job advised that an employer or a business dealing with the public would be far more likely to be sued for doing nothing to clear ice/snow, as that would count as negligence.