Road Commission sees 60 percent hike in road salt prices
MANCELONA – With the familiar return of cold weather and snow to Antrim County's roadways last weekend, motorists on primary roads saw another familiar sight: the Antrim County Road Commission, which – with a full fleet of trucks and six tons of road salt in the barns – is once again ready for the onslaught of a northern Michigan winter.
But this year's supply of road salt came at a price; in fact, a price more than 60 percent higher than last year.
A hard winter last year in southern Michigan as well as other Midwestern states, resulting in a shortage of available rock salt supplies, is to blame for the higher prices, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation, which purchases its salt supplies through a coalition of road agencies, including the Antrim County Road Commission (ACRC), called MiDeal.
During the winter of 2013-14, MDOT and its contract agencies used 653,500 tons of salt on Michigan state highways at a total cost of more than $32.4 million. Prices have been rising steadily ever since, which until this year, was blamed on the increasing price of fuel.
That increase cost the ACRC $260,000 this year, and that's only for enough salt to fill the agency's three storage barns, said ACRC Engineer/Manager Burt Thompson.
"We will use more later in the winter so (we) will spend even more on salt this season," said Thompson. "The backup that we have ordered will be paid after they deliver."
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