This Sudbury, Ont. company designed a giant snowplow brush to cut back on salt
The brushes cost more than $10,000 but Plowbrush says they pay for themselves in a season or two
A Sudbury, Ont. company says municipal snowplows can reduce their salt use by 40 per cent if they attach one of their large brushes to their vehicles.
Brennen Chaput says he and his father started to design their brushes, which use the same type of bristles as street sweepers, around four years ago.
Now, Plowbrush has sold about a dozen units to road maintenance contractor Emcon, and one to the city of Greater Sudbury.
Chaput, who is now Plowbrush's vice-president of operations, said a friend who works for Emcon came up with the idea of attaching a wide brush behind a plow.
The brush creates grooves in the snow and loosens it, which means it takes less salt for it to melt.
"We have three pneumatically-activated cylinders that put down pressure on the broom and just help cut into that snow." Chaput said.
Emcon, which operates plow fleets across Canada, and clears many highways in northern Ontario, tested the Plowbrush system against one of their plows without it along the same stretch of highway.
The control plow without the brush used 28.5 tonnes of salt over a two-day period in February. The plow with the brush used 12.4 tonnes of salt over the same period.
Chaput said that while his brushes cost more than $10,000, they pay for themselves in a season or two thanks to the savings on salt.
In Encom's test, the plow with the brush saved the company $1,663 on salt over those two days.
Municipalities are also trying to cut back on road salt due to environmental concerns.
The City of Greater Sudbury uses salt on main roads and secondary collector routes, but uses sand on less busy rural and residential roads.
With files from Jonathan Pinto