Fries With That? ODOT Sprinkled Nearly 4 Million Pounds of Salt on Oregon Highways Last Week

Some Oregonians retain a lingering belief that we don’t salt our roads because, until about a decade ago, that was indeed the case.

The Oregon Department of Transportation began experimenting with salt in 2012, after decades of avoiding the substance because it is corrosive and bad for various wildlife habitats.

That prohibition is long gone, and the agency today announced it spread nearly 4 million pounds of salt during the recent ice storm—2.5 million pounds in Region 1, which includes the metro area and some of the Columbia River Gorge, and another 1.3 million pounds in Region 2, which covers the North Coast and the central Willamette Valley.

All told, the agency put down more salt than it had ever used for a storm—nearly a pound of salt for every Oregon resident.

The agency also spread about 268,000 gallons of deicing liquid on state highways.

“Numbers alone can’t capture the impacts of winter weather,” ODOT director Kris Strickler said, “but they certainly illustrate the expansive efforts of our people working across the state.”