MOLINE, Ill — Moline now has a new solution to combat wintery road conditions, saving the city money, but ultimately saving taxpayers money.
The city is now using a brine solution making machine. This machine produces a salt-brine that consists of a salt water mixture that can help reduce the amount of ice and snow built up along roads. The machine can make 1,000 gallons of salt-brine in 11 minutes.
Not only is it quick and efficient, it's also cheaper for the city and ultimately for taxpayers. Salt-brine costs 20 cents per gallon, while bio melt, what the city was mainly using before, is nearly $3 per gallon. So, the city of Moline is saving nearly $2.50 per gallon with this new mixture.
News 8's Charles Hart spoke with Street Operations Manager for Moline Public Works Graeme Jewell who said, with this new solution, crews will be able to pre-treat more lane miles in Moline.
"If a street is covered, let's say with an inch of ice, we can go dump this stuff on that ice and it will remove it," Jewell said.
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"And as the years go by we do plan on adding equipment onto the fleet, equipment onto existing fleet," Jewell said. "This will also allow us to if we get an ice layer, we can break up ice with this, where as the BIOMELT does not work too well for that."
Jewell said this is not completely replacing the BIOMELT. Crews will mix 10% of the current BIOMELT solution in with 90% of the new solution to increase the effectiveness of the salt-brine. Jewell said they're hoping to get the new mixture out soon, and to make adjustments to the solution as necessary to make roads safer.