Aliyya Swaby Photo
Preparing for Saturday, Pescosolido peers into brine basins.
Preparing to launch another winter of snow-clearing on New Haven’s streets, Steve Mustakos swerved his truck out of a lot and pressed a button in the cab, prompting salt brine to spill out from nine nozzles.
The city Department of Public Works laborer covered the streets of Fair Haven with a special solution of briny water to prevent the snow or ice from forming a bond with the roads during the season’s expected first blizzard, or at least signfiicant snowfall, predicted to hit here on Saturday.
This is the first year Mustakos and his colleagues will proactively “pre-wet” the streets, making good use of a $60,000 piece of equipment the city purchased just under a year ago.
The city purchased the “Accubatch” brine making system “later in the season” last year, said public works chief Jeff Pescosolido. “We didn’t have a chance to have the staff go through the process” of mixing the solution.
The Accubatch is made up of two large basins, connected by a series of pumps and valves. In the lower basement of the Department of Public works at 34 Middletown Ave., Mustakos filled one basin with water, then hopped in a Bobcat and poured a large mound of rock salt into the other. Then he activated the system.
After a minute, water was pumped into the basin with the salt, then poured down into the water basin — gradually increasing the salinity of the solution as it circulated. “We keep mixing until we get the salinity we want,” Mustakos said.
The target salinity: 23.3 percent. Any lower and the solution could freeze on the roads, Pescosolido said.
Salt water circulates from basin to another.
One common misconception is that the brine stops the snow from sticking and piling up on the streets, Mustakos said. The purpose is “to break the bond between the snow sticking on the road so we can pile it up without it sticking to the ground,” making the streets easier to clean later, he said.
“When the snow starts coming in, as soon as it starts getting wet, it activates” the solution on the streets, he said. Just before last week’s sprinkle of snow, crews put down the solution on some streets and bridges, to prevent them from icing up overnight.
Two 1,500-gallon storage tanks sat in the corner of the basement, soon to be filled with salt solution, so the department doesn’t run out throughout the storm, Mustakos said.
Mustakos and Dorsey at DPW HQ.
Thursday was the perfect day to pour the solution on the streets, because the sun was high and bright despite the chilly wind, said Lynwood Dorsey (pictured above right), city superintendent of streets. It would take about a half hour for the salt water to dry, leaving behind a chalky white residue.
Dorsey created five zones in five different neighborhoods — Fair Haven, Newhallville, Hill, Westville and Morris Cove — to reach areas that have iced up in the past, especially intersections and hills.
Mustakos drove off in a large truck with a 1,000-gallon tank attached to the top. He sprayed the brine from nine white nozzles one way down the length of Ferry, and across the Ferry Street bridge, before turning around to spray the parallel lane. He expected to reach three of Dorsey’s zones, if not more.
Mustakos has been working in the Department of Public Works for 13 years. Over that time, the city has become technologically savvier in the way it prepares for storms. When he began working in New Haven, Mustakos put down a mix of sand and salt, to melt the snow and allow vehicles traction. “Now we have salt treated with molasses so it sticks to the ground,” he said. “No one heard of treated salt back then.”
The sand clogged the drain pipes and took manpower to sweep up every spring, he said. The brine solution requires no aftercare — washing off with rain or snow. The main problem with the brine is that it “does a number on your car,” he said. “It rusts everything.”
The department’s crews prepped for the weekend, by cleaning leaves and debris out of catch basins in the storm drains and filling large barrels with sand in front of schools, Dorsey said. They will also check to make sure the vehicles and equipment are at the top of their game.
“I hope this wind dies down,” he noted, as bits of paper sailed through the air. “It’ll be blizzard conditions.”