VDOT Pilot Program Will Apply Only Brine Mix to Some of Chantilly's Icy Roads

The Virginia Department of Transportation unveiled their plans this week on how they plan to tackle snow and ice this winter.

Part of the plan: An experiment on Chantilly roadways.

When snow or ice is predicted, VDOT crews pretreat trouble spots on interstates and other high-volume roads with anti-icing chemicals, including salt brine and liquid calcium chloride.

As part of a pilot to reduce costs, VDOT’s Northern Virginia District will only apply a brine mix in parts of Chantilly, in lieu of any road salt, to determine if this is a viable alternative to applying salt after plowing. The VDOT budget for snow removal in Northern Virginia is $50.5 million.

For the past three years, VDOT has activated an online neighborhood tracking map that monitors the status of plowing in Northern Virginia neighborhoods when it snows two inches or more.

You can access the snowplow tracker at http://www.vdotplows.org/.

A video on how to use the website is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMRaItZLgyo&feature=youtu.be.

Patch archive photo