February 25, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact Ibis Antongiorgi, Press Secretary to Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger, at 312-603-0396 or by email at iantongiorgi@cookcountygov.com.

Cook County Highway Department to Lend Salt to Municipalities to Ease Shortage for Roadclearing Efforts  

County Highway stockpiles will help ease supply problems for road salt, safeguard streets and transportation corridors as another storm brews in region.

February 25, 2008, CHICAGO, IL - The Cook County Highway Department and County Board President Todd Stroger’s office have received calls in recent days from local municipalities and townships running short on road salt – and struggling to find new supplies as a particularly brutal Midwestern winter grinds on. The County has moved to meet the need by pledging one hundred tons of salt to five local government agencies and an offer to provide more if necessary to other municipalities that may also run short.

The winter of 2007/08 has been marked by repeated storms and cold fronts that have pushed towns and villages across the region to step up the use of road salt to ease icing dangers – at the same time that salt venders across the United States have run short of salt supplies because of high demand.

“Our Highway Department is in a position to loan restricted amounts of salt to meet these requests while municipalities wait for their supplies to come in,” said President Stroger.  “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to answer a public safety need and work in collaboration with area road officials to ensure the safety of winter travelers.”

The municipalities will replace the salt in-kind when their deliveries from salt vendors finally arrive.  Cook County’s loan is timely; weather forecasters have predicted another round of freezing rain and snow for the next 24 hours.

Cook County will move to immediately provide road salt to the towns of Blue Island and Crestwood, as well as Bloom, Lyons and Worth Townships. Cook County will also continue to communicate with townships and villages that have expressed potential salt needs if their suppliers fail to deliver supplies on time, and work to loan them salt supplies if the need arises, as well.

This year, the County has already used roughly 25,000 tons of salt – about the average for a full winter season.

Each year, Cook County’s Highway Department stockpiles more than twenty thousand tons of rock salt – and has access to up to fifty thousand additional tons if needed. Those supplies go to maintain and ensure the safety of 486 centerline miles of Cook County roads – the equivalent of more than fourteen hundred lane miles of roads.

The Highway Department plays a critical role in keeping local roadways and bridges safe and free of ice and snow 24 hours a day during the winter. The Department also has the capability to produce salt brine that is applied to the pavement before a winter storm event to prevent the bonding of snow and ice to the pavement, which allows for faster clean-up after the storm subsides.

Many County roads are part of the major arterial network that leads to and from area expressways and toll roads -- including two-lane highways that present unique challenges during salting and plowing operations because of limited visibility and oncoming traffic.

At the beginning of the winter storm season, Cook County activated its round-the-clock winter operations plan, and County Highway trucks and workers have been providing road salting and plowing as need and weather conditions dictate. Those operations, which utilize over 100 pieces of equipment and a comprehensive emergency winter storm plan, go into high gear in the wake of warnings or alerts about impending winter storms, which could wreak havoc on local transportation needs without prompt County intervention.

Staff use a range of strategies and technologies – from wireless communication and GIS equipment to hands-on supervisory assessment of conditions on the ground – to track and tackle evolving road conditions. The Department has eighty frontline snow fighting vehicles equipped with plows and spreaders, as well as front-end loaders and road graders that are used to remove heavy accumulations of snow. The Department's newer trucks are equipped with speed sensitive spreaders and pre-wetting equipment.

Highway personnel provide anti-icing on critical roadway sections on an as-needed basis by applying a salt brine solution to minimize icy conditions, and the Department has on hand 20,000 gallons of calcium chloride that is added to salt to accelerate the de-icing process during periods of particularly low temperatures. In an average winter, Cook County generally uses up to 40,000 tons of roadway salt.

“It makes sense to use our reserves to help local governments meet their road safety needs,” says Cook County Highway Superintendent Rupert Graham. “The weather knows no boundaries, and if we can help prevent even one traffic accident, it’s worth it.”

For more information, contact Ibis Antongiorgi, Press Secretary to Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger, at 312-603-0396 or iantongiorgi@cookcountygov.com. 

# # #