Snowplowing might seem a misplaced topic during an unusually torrid July, but state highway officials are already planning a new tactic to deal with Northeastern Oregon blizzards this winter.

Salt.

Oregon’s five-year experiment with spreading salt to melt snow on highways was limited to sections of two routes, neither in this region:

• Interstate 5 through Siskiyou Pass around the Oregon/California border

• U.S. Highway 95 in the state’s southeast corner between Jordan Valley and the Nevada border

This winter, though, the Oregon Department of Transportation plans to also deploy salt on a roughly 200-mile stretch of Interstate 84 between Ontario and Boardman, said Craig Sipp, Region 5 manager in La Grande.

That section includes areas notorious for nasty driving conditions and prone to temporary traffic closures during winter, including the Burnt River Canyon southeast of Baker City, Ladd Canyon between North Powder and La Grande, and the Blue Mountains between La Grande and Pendleton.

“Salt is very effective in certain conditions — we learned that on Highway 95,” Sipp said.

He said ODOT officials also learned how to maximize the effectiveness of salt.

For instance, snowplow drivers recognized that they need to wait longer than they expected to plow the highway after applying salt. When they plowed as soon as the salt had started to melt packed snow, the skim of water and ice that remained tended to refreeze quickly.

See more in the July 26, 2017, issue of the Baker City Herald.