Even though the cost of maintaining concrete structures is becoming prohibitively expensive mainly due to the effects of deicing salts, the benefits provided by adding these salts on icy roads are too great for their use to see any decrease in the future. In fact, the use of road deicing salts, which are extremely corrosive due to the disruptive effects of its chloride ions on protective films on metals, has actually increased in the first half of the 1990s-after a leveling off during the 1980s.
The impact of deicing salts on green spaces adjacent to roads where such salts are used is quite obvious if you happen to travel on these roads in the Summer. However, there is growing concern that the massive use of these salts has a direct impact on human health. The following discussion indicates what some corrosion experts know of the subject.
Although an alternative effective and less corrosive deicing agent, calcium magnesium acetate (CMA), is available, its price is apparently not yet reasonable enough for winter maintenance engineers to use widely. Therefore, it can be expected that the road environment would likely remain corrosive, if not more, well into the future.
CLIMAT coupons were deployed in the Kingston (Ontario) area in 1997, 1998 and 1999. The most striking results were obtained closed to two well traveled highways during the winter months, when deicing slats are profusely spread on the roads to prevent ice formation. 'Click' on the dates on the following map to access some of these results.
