Though it’s just starting to feel like
summer in a lot of places, it’s not too
early to prepare for the winter blues, and
think about keeping your facility clear of
ice when the temperature drops and the
snow flies.
Imagine: The trucks are lined up down
the block and heading for your docks.
The weather that arrived overnight shut
most other businesses and non-essential
operations down and more storms are on
the way. Unlike your neighbors, you don’t
have the option of closing up shop.
If you’re a key manufacturer, major
distribution center, hospital or emergency
services dispatcher, the vehicles need to
keep moving. Your personnel and drivers
need to be safe walking amongst the
vehicles and if a vehicle gets stuck on the
ice or in the snow, it can cause a backup
that takes hours to make up for or deny life saving assistance to someone in need.
The two primary concerns of a Vital
Services Facility, is safety and efficiency.
People need to be safe and vehicles need
to move. Meeting these objectives under
the harshest conditions often takes
multiple products and techniques–
you’ve moved beyond just a bag of rock
salt and a plow. As a VSF manager you
need to know the tools and techniques
that are appropriate at a given time and
best position you for the continuing
weather.
Starting with the basics, one of the core
foundations of a modern winter maintenance
plan is pro-active approach to antiicing.
Anti-icing of highways and city
streets has been embraced in many states
and is growing in popularity as more operations
recognize the cost savings and efficiencies
of using liquid anti-icers prior to a winter storm event.
A simple way to understand the difference
between solid and liquid de-icers is
that solid products melt from the top down
and liquid products melt from the bottom
up. Liquids used as an anti-icer prior to a
winter storm event prevent the bonding of
snow to your surfaces, significantly reducing
ice formation and allowing snow
to be easily removed despite the amount
of foot or vehicle traffic that has packed
the snow down. A rigorous anti-icing
program can deflect the brunt of much of
the weather that impacts your facility.
While investigating liquids for antiicing,
spend some time researching biobased
additives, or liquid blends that
incorporate bio-based products. The addition
of a bio-based product to a salt
brine, liquid magnesium or calcium
chloride solution has the environmental benefit of reducing your overall application
of chlorides, while extending the residual
effect of any one of these de-icing chemicals,
and can act as a corrosion inhibitor.
Depending on the bio-based product
you choose, you can actually enhance the
melting performance of these de-icers. In
highly corrosion sensitive areas such as a
helicopter landing pad, higher end and
subsequently higher cost, liquid de-icers
such as potassium acetate are the preferred
approach.
For solid products, many VSFs take a
no-nonsense approach and use high end
solid de-icers such as calcium chloride
to quickly melt ice and prevent accumulation.
Calcium chloride and other hydroscopic
chemicals, such as magnesium
chloride however can cause slip and fall
issues when tracked into a facility like
an emergency room with tile floors and
insufficient walk off mats.
The slimey residue that can be brought
into a facility from these chemicals can
create a very slippery surface. A VSF’s
safety approach has to extend past the
chemicals applied outside and follow their impact into a facility, from extending
walk off mats well into a building or by
using liquids to de-ice the areas outside of
an entry point to reduce the tracking of
dry product.
For vehicle traffic, traction is key,
whether accomplished by using an aggregate
or large particle rock salt, a vehicle
needs to find traction in the ice
and on your road. These same aggregates,
however, if composed of large
particles can cause a slip and fall accident
when used on walking paths as the
particle can roll under a shoe much like
a marble. Understanding this difference
will insure that you apply the right product
to the right traffic area. Aggregate deicer
blends are available that may
require post application cleanup but can
quickly make an icy surface functional.
In an ideal operation the melted slush
created by liquids or solid de-icers needs
to be removed by blade or shovel to prevent
refreezing and causing traction or
slip and fall issues. Unfortunately in a
crisis situation where the snow is continuous
and so is traffic, a VSF may not have the opportunity to plow or shovel as
often to keep a road surface clear at all
times. In these situations an over application
of liquid, although not recommended
under normal conditions, can be
used to maintain a low freezing point to
your slush material and prevent refreezing,
allowing truck traffic to continue to
move unhindered.
Although the approaches to maintaining
a Vital Services Facility under harsh winter
conditions can vary dramatically depending
on traffic and weather patterns, tools
and techniques do exist to keep a VSF operational.
The more you familiarize yourself
with the tools available and their
specific applications and performance characteristics,
the better prepared you will be
for whatever mother nature throws at you.
The best learning experience is
your own. Keep records of weather, products and techniques and
understand what works, what doesn’t and why and your facility will
rely on you as much as others rely on it.
