Road Salt

The Newtown Township supervisors have voted unanimously to award a contract for road salt to Morton Salt of Chicago. Morton Salt submitted the lowest of five bids - $35.04 a ton - during a brief meeting Monday night. Supervisor E. Coe Williams was absent. The contract for 2,500 tons was for Newtown, Marple and Haverford Townships, Newtown manager Larry Comunale said. He added that depending on the weather, Newtown might use about 300 tons. In other business, Comunale said the township would lose about $10,000 from its 1991 budget because Delaware County on Jan. 1 will end subsidies for recyclables such as newspapers, for which it had paid $25 a ton. The county first made the subsidies available in 1985 to encourage recycling.

A new weapon against snow and ice was used on selected Chester County roads and sidewalks this winter - beet juice. It was added to the salt-based brine put on roads before storms and enabled the solution to work at lower temperatures. But those trying to recall whether there were swaths of red-stained concrete, don't bother. "There's no redness at all," said Jack Stewart, a project manager for the county's Facilities Department. "When you put it down, it's more brownish and looks like the road is wet. " The substance is a by-product of sugar beets, which are used to make sweetener and animal feed, officials said.

Salt is the sworn enemy of steel-reinforced concrete, and it doesn't take much to cause a crack like the one that fouled up the I-95 bridge. Over the years, concrete can become permeated with road salt from a steady drip of wintry slush. If salt reaches the inner steel, it's the beginning of the end: corrosion. "Once you start getting salt brine down in there, it's a killer," said Harold Windisch, a senior construction engineer with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Call it the case of the disappearing salt - 12 tons of it. Police say some salty dog slunk away with a heaping dump truck's worth of road salt and no one knows how or why. About half of the 25-ton load of road salt delivered earlier this week to the Kmart parking lot on Route 38 at Lenola Road is missing, according to police. With the going price for road salt $35 a ton, the take was worth about $420. But it must have had some use for whoever took on the feat of moving 24,000 pounds of loose asphalt spice.

DETROIT HONDA RECALL FOR FUEL LEAK American Honda said yesterday it is recalling about 900,000 Accords from model years 1982 through 1985 because of possible fuel leaks. Company officials said about 400,000 cars driven in areas where road salt is used extensively could have the problem. If the protective coating on the fuel filter or breather pipe is damaged, salt could cause the pipes to rust through and gasoline could leak when the tank is filled. No incidents have been reported because of the problem, Honda said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that dredging will begin Saturday in the 17-acre Fairless Turning Basin, adjacent to the Delaware River in Bucks County, to deepen the 37-foot basin to 40 feet, which is the same shipping depth as the river's main navigation channel. The $990,000 project will take about two weeks. The cost will be shared, 75 percent by the Corps and 25 percent by the Redevelopment Authority of Bucks County. The Bucks County port handles about four million tons of freight a year.

A repeat of last week's monster ice storm was averted during the morning rush hour today as rain replaced the combination of rain, sleet and snow that fell in the area during the night. Streets and highways were wet, but not slippery as the temperatures rose. A high of 38 was forecast for today, with even warmer weather predicted for tomorrow. Accu-Weather said that, after dipping to about 30 degrees overnight, a high of 43 is expected tomorrow. A bitterly cold weekend is expected.

They sent caravans into the north for it. They returned to the city and rebuilt their stock. Now thousands of tons of salt are again aimed at Philadelphia's highways in a barrage fired back at the winter that just won't quit. But hold on there, plow train. The bitter fact is that the same salt that keeps us moving could mean trouble down the road for bridges, highways, cars, trees and waterways. In fact, says the Department of Environmental Resources, "The most environmentally sound manner to deal with accumulated snow is to allow it to slowly melt where it falls.

Winter's come to rolling, tree-lined Skippack Pike - Route 73 - in Montgomery County, and once the snow begins to fly, a half-dozen different township road crews will be spreading salt on it by the ton. Drivers, of course, won't notice much difference as they pass from one municipality to the next. But taxpayers up and down the Pike sure will: Because of cooperative purchasing, some township taxpayers will be paying a little more than half what their neighbors pay for road salt.

Score the latest round to Falls Township in a drawn-out court battle over a municipal salt dome. But don't think the fight is over yet. A Bucks County judge this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by several residents against Falls Township that sought to have a salt dome, pole barn and other structures behind the town's municipal complex removed. Judge Ward Clark ruled that the Falls Group, about a dozen Austin Drive residents who brought the suit, "failed to prove that [the structures]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that dredging will begin Saturday in the 17-acre Fairless Turning Basin, adjacent to the Delaware River in Bucks County, to deepen the 37-foot basin to 40 feet, which is the same shipping depth as the river's main navigation channel. The $990,000 project will take about two weeks. The cost will be shared, 75 percent by the Corps and 25 percent by the Redevelopment Authority of Bucks County. The Bucks County port handles about four million tons of freight a year.

A new weapon against snow and ice was used on selected Chester County roads and sidewalks this winter - beet juice. It was added to the salt-based brine put on roads before storms and enabled the solution to work at lower temperatures. But those trying to recall whether there were swaths of red-stained concrete, don't bother. "There's no redness at all," said Jack Stewart, a project manager for the county's Facilities Department. "When you put it down, it's more brownish and looks like the road is wet. " The substance is a by-product of sugar beets, which are used to make sweetener and animal feed, officials said.

Salt is the sworn enemy of steel-reinforced concrete, and it doesn't take much to cause a crack like the one that fouled up the I-95 bridge. Over the years, concrete can become permeated with road salt from a steady drip of wintry slush. If salt reaches the inner steel, it's the beginning of the end: corrosion. "Once you start getting salt brine down in there, it's a killer," said Harold Windisch, a senior construction engineer with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

"Stay off 95! Use mass transit if you can. And if you have to use the interstate, give yourself an extra hour or so to get to where you're going," said PennDot spokesman Gene Blaum, reacting to the repair emergency that forced the closure of an eight-exit section of the highway between Girard Avenue and the Betsy Ross Bridge that snarled detours all day and all night. And it will be the same tomorrow. As motorists braced for today's nasty commute, PennDot secretary Allen D. Bielher held out hope that the highway could be reopened by Wednesday night after crews underpin the affected section.

The little Morton salt girl is looking for a new home. Rohm & Haas Co. chief executive officer Raj Gupta said all options were on the table: keeping the snow-dependent Morton salt division, selling it, or spinning it off in an initial public offering, or IPO. By the end of the year, he recently told analysts, the Philadelphia company should "have a path forward. " The nation's largest and the most recognized brand of table salt, with the cute girl and her umbrella, the Morton division is "performing fantastically," he said.

An angry and apologetic Gov. Rendell yesterday called his administration's handling of a massive backup on a snow- and ice-covered section of I-78 "totally unacceptable" and ordered a full investigation. "I am to blame for this, and I accept full responsibility for our inadequate and unprepared response," Rendell said at a news conference about the 50-mile tie-up west of Allentown that began Wednesday and stretched into early yesterday morning. "I personally apologize to each and every motorist who was stranded," Rendell said.

Victory is at hand in the auto industry's 30-year war against rust. No more Ford trucks with tailgates that look like decayed teeth. No more Toyota Celicas with see-through wheel wells. No more VWs with college cafeteria trays covering rusted-out floor pans. "Rust has virtually gone away," declared David Champion, director of automotive testing for Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, the leading U.S. car-buying guide. Tell it to Mike Duran, manager of the Fairfax, Va., franchise for Ziebart, once the nation's busiest rust-proofer.

They trucked it to Fairmount Park. They lugged it to an abandoned air strip at the Philadelphia Navy Base. They dumped it in vacant lots. They even turned it to water in newfangled snow-melting machines. Still, in the midst of the worst storm in years, Philadelphia officials knew they would run out of places to put the mountains of snow. So they shoved it in the Schuylkill. "It was our option of last resort," said Streets Commissioner Clarena Tolson. Into the river went the snow - 400,000 pounds of it; the road salt; and likely a toxic brew of street liquids - antifreeze, oil, gasoline, brake fluid - and trash.

Call it the case of the disappearing salt - 12 tons of it. Police say some salty dog slunk away with a heaping dump truck's worth of road salt and no one knows how or why. About half of the 25-ton load of road salt delivered earlier this week to the Kmart parking lot on Route 38 at Lenola Road is missing, according to police. With the going price for road salt $35 a ton, the take was worth about $420. But it must have had some use for whoever took on the feat of moving 24,000 pounds of loose asphalt spice.

Maybe that furry little groundhog was right this time. The Philadelphia area - thanks to February storms - is having its second-snowiest winter in nearly two decades. The city is ordering road salt. The suburbs are digging out. And the cost of Thursday's fast-moving snowstorm is running into the millions for highway departments across the region. "We're re-ordering salt," said city Managing Director Joe Martz. "We're actually into our second re-order of salt. " But there's still plenty on hand, he said, to deal with the next snowfall - which the National Weather Service says could arrive around Thursday.