Why doesn’t ODOT just use salt?
ODOT doesn’t use salt because it has detrimental effects to vehicles, structures and the environment. Salt, rock salt, or road salt are the common terms for sodium chloride, a product traditionally used in the eastern United States. While road salt is an effective tool for melting snow and ice, it also causes severe rust damage to vehicles, degrades the road surface, corrodes bridges, and may harm roadside vegetation. To date, ODOT has made a commitment to not use road salt and will only select products that are less likely to impact vehicles, the road surface, and the environment. The products used by ODOT are effective to help provide safe roadway travel conditions and are cost effective to use. ODOT continues to evaluate all possible methods of controlling ice and snow on roadways. Currently ODOT believes that current practices are the best available for Oregon’s climate. ODOT is willing to adapt methods if other practices demonstrate better overall effectiveness in keeping roads op
