BETHEL – A state official suggested to selectmen Monday night that the town try pretreating its roads with calcium chloride this winter.

Phil Curtis, an employee with the Maine Local Roads Division of the Maine Department of Transportation, said interim Town Manager Steve Eldridge asked MDOT about pre-treating roads with calcium chloride after selectmen expressed interest in the practice.

“I’ll be trying to show you what MDOT is doing that’s different than municipalities and whether the town of Bethel could replicate what the Department of Transportation is doing and save some money,” Curtis said. “We’ll see if you can maybe get the roads back to black a little quicker.”

Curtis said MDOT has been on a salt-priority program since the winter of 1999-2000. The program is an anti-icing approach to snow and ice control, which means using equipment to spread salt before a storm starts to prevent the snow and ice from ponding to the pavement.

An article distributed by selectmen from the MDOT website said “anti-icing dramatically reduces the amount of time that the traveling public is exposed to icy conditions.”

Curtis said MDOT typically uses salt brine prior to a snowstorm, which is “water saturated with sodium chloride.”

“If you let water, in the form of snow, fall to the pavement and freeze, you’ll be de-icing, which is melting the ice and snow from the top down,” Curtis said. “From an anti-icing perspective, you’re attacking any ice or snow from the bottom up. You’re going to spend 7 to 10 percent more money to attack ice from the top down.”

One resident asked Curtis what it would cost the town to transition from using salt and sand to a salt-priority program.

Curtis estimated it would be around $10,000, pointing out that the town would need to purchase an onboard pre-wetting system for trucks, a 2,500-gallon tank to store the chemicals for the road and 2,500 gallons of product.

“In setting up for this, you’ll be spending some money,” Curtis said. “I recommend that you take a section of road about seven or eight miles long and try the salt-priority method. Place the chemicals on that section of road and compare it at the end of the storm to a regular section of road. You may not like it. Some municipalities say that it’s not for them.”

Chairman Stan Howe said selectmen will continue to investigate the salt-priority method to see if it would be a good method for the town.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com