Agenda - Public Works Committee - 04/18/2006

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CASE SALT STORAGE BUILDING By: Grant Riemer, Public Works Supervisor Background: The City of Ramsey has listed in the current CIP a salt storage building, Project #04- BLDG-005 with a budget of $150,000.00. The building would consist of a fabric cover stretched over a steel super structure and would be placed on an asphalt pad. The pad would be constructed with in house labor. The pad is needed to keep the salt from leaching into the soil. One advantage of this type of building is that it can be disassembled in the future and moved to a different site as needed. Additional sections can also be added to increase capacity if the need arises in the future The size that staff is recommending 70'x 100' and is capable of storing approximately 3,300 tons of material, and would allow for inside loading and unloading of material, plus the ability to store different types of de-icing material, including a salt brine tank for our future pre-wetting systems. Our current salt storage building holds approximately 200 tons. Our main de-icing material at this time is crashed rock salt which is effective when pavement temperatures are at 20 degrees and rising. With the new building we would be able to keep a supply of treated salt for times when pa'cement drops below 20 degrees. One example of treated salt is a product called "Clearlane" which is a mixture of salt, magnesium chloride and cane molasses. The advantages of treated salt and pre-wetting are their ability to work in much colder temperatures and the need for less material to do the same job. Some estimates are as much as 20-30% less. Pre-wetting works on the principal that salt needs moisture to work and by adding moisture on the truck we can get the salt into solution much faster, so it can start melting snow faster, plus it sticks to the road better and less salt is lost to "bounce and scatter." Everyone is trying to lower environmental impacts due to the use of chlorides. We already incorporate much of the new technology such as ground speed controlled spinners and truck mounted pavement temperature sensors. Proper storage is an important step in the overall equation as it would offer us additional space to store the new de-icing chemicals, plus offer covered loading and unloading and the ability to order all our salt at the beginning of the season. Staffestimates the cost of the storage building, plus bituminous pad would be approximately $160,000.00.