Davenport Takes Heat For Not Salting Streets

Social media was buzzing about the City of Davenport's decision not to salt city streets on Sunday due to the cold temperatures, according to our news partners at WQAD. It may not have been a bad decision. Road salt has a chemical reaction with water which is what causes it to work, but when temperatures are too low, it becomes ineffective, and it can actually refreeze making roads even icier.

How slick roads can actually become when road salt is applied during bitter cold was evident earlier this morning when several vehicles slid into the concrete divider on the elevated section of I-74 in downtown Moline causing significant backups.

Davenport Public Works said the roads would be salted on Monday once temperatures rose to a level that would again make the road salt effective.

Here's a graphic from the Iowa DOT showing how temperatures affect the usefulness of road salt.