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Markqz t1_j9as8do wrote

Is "gritting" the same as "salting", or are they actually putting down dirt? Or something else entirely?

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_Odi_Et_Amo_ t1_j9byd4n wrote

Rock salt, it's a mix of salt and grit. Scattered across the road from the back of a specialised lorry.

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TricksterWolf t1_j9ff2ye wrote

Just FYI, rock salt is not salt mixed with rocks. It's salt crystals mined directly out of the ground (rather than evaporated from seawater or runoff).

Rock salt is most often used without grit in it. It's cheaper when it isn't food-grade.

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_Odi_Et_Amo_ t1_j9fmsp8 wrote

In a culinary setting you'd be right, in a road salting setting it's slightly more complicated.

You can get very fine halites (rock salt as you say) mined as an alternative source to sea salt.

Council gritters (clues in the name) use rough mined rocksalt which is mixed with sand and other aggregates and usualy screened to ~ 10 mm to make it amenable to spreading this definitely does contain small stones and grit and is why you get gritty sandy buildup on roads during gritting season that won't wash directly away when it rains (as a motorcyclist this is a nightmare as it tends to build up on crosshatch and makes filtering extra dangerous.

I agree it's not particularly helpful we just use rock salt to describe both materials though.

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chasonreddit t1_j9b8dta wrote

Thank you. I came to ask. Us poor ignorant yanks.

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PSquared1234 t1_j9cc4as wrote

Me too. Even halfway through reading the article, I was still going "huh?".

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Cutsdeep- t1_j9cpiad wrote

Aussie here, came to the comments to make sense of it, but had to look up both those terms.

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gitsgrl t1_j9ez6lu wrote

We put down grit for traction on the ice in the US. Some areas don’t allow salt so it’s only grit.

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chasonreddit t1_j9ezlac wrote

You know, I realized that, they do it here. I just don't think I've heard it called that. We just say they salted the road even though you know it's not salt.

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NoMoreBeGrieved t1_j9d2gbq wrote

Depends on where you are. In California, no salt, only dirt and sand.

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ThisOneSmartIdiot t1_j9dyfhw wrote

False. In San Diego and Inperial Counties I have seen them spray some sort of liquid deicer. May or may not be salt, but when it dries it certainly looks like salt.

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Yuzral t1_j9flc17 wrote

Salt plus fine gravel for extra grip.

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