What is Road Sand?

• Road sand is a mix of gravel and stone bits. It is often mined in surface mining and housed in large "sand sheds," where town and highway crews can access it during wintry weather. The best sand for treating slippery road surfaces should be less than 3/8-inch in diameter, and larger than fine rounded particles. Irregular shaped particles work best for providing traction.
  
  

How It Works

• Sand being released through a spreader
  
  Town and highway crews have large trucks that empty the sand out onto slick road surfaces through the bottom of the truck by use of a spreader. Sand does not melt snow or ice, so it is often pre-mixed with salt so that when it hits the road surface it causes a slight melting action. This helps the sand to embed itself into the icy or snowy surface, allowing it to remain on the roadways and provide traction to motorists.
  
  The sand needs to stay between the vehicle tires and the ice on the road in order to work efficiently. For this reason, if there is too much salt added to the sand, the salt will melt the snow and the sand will be pushed down into the slush and will not be effective in providing traction.
  
  Sand is used primarily on roadways that have less traffic. Less traffic means the snow and ice will melt more slowly, so sand is needed to maintain some traction on the remaining snowpack.
  
  

The Problem With Sand

• In recent years, town and highway departments have been phasing sand out of their wintry weather arsenals. Sand does not dissolve, but instead makes its way to river beds and streams. When the weather warms up it affects water runoff, gathers in storm drains and basically causes many problems when the spring rolls around.
  
  The particles in the sand also cause concern. When cleanup takes place in the spring, the fine dusty particles from the sand fill the air, adding to breathing problems for many. In some areas, sand must be swept up off the roadways in the spring and must be cleaned up and taken away as "solid waste."
  
  With the increasing awareness of environmental concerns many highway departments are switching to salt only as an ice melt, adding a small percentage of sand to the mix only when necessary. Even though salt is more expensive than sand, the clean-up process, along with the damage done to environmental streams and wetlands make the use of sand more costly in the long run.