[Rocketfan]

INDIANAPOLIS - A shortage of road salt and skyrocketing salt prices could mean slippery roads this winter in communities across the nation as officials struggle to keep pavement clear of snow and ice without breaking their budgets.

Heavy snow last year heightened demand for salt, and now many towns can't find enough of it. The shortage could force many cities to salt fewer roads, increasing the risk of accidents. Other communities are abandoning road salt for less expensive but also less effective sand or sand-salt blends.

"The driving public may be the ones who suffer on this," said Robert Young, highway superintendent for northwestern Indiana's LaPorte County, which has 20,000 tons of salt on hand — only half as much as needed to last a normal winter. Because of the shortage, three companies refused to bid on the county's request for more.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080922/ap_ ... ST09kDW7oF

[fan00]

Come on snow days!...

[LUconn]

Good. Any locality that doesn't get 100+ inches per season and uses salt on the roads needs to be put down anyway. They're just causing unnecessary corrosion on cars.

[ATrain]

Good. Any locality that doesn't get 100+ inches per season and uses salt on the roads needs to be put down anyway. They're just causing unnecessary corrosion on cars.

That would be everywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line

[Sly Fox]

Salt on roads ... Thanks for the reminder of why I live in Texas. I needed it the past and a half after Ike.