AASHTO Journal - 'Salt Seeing Eye’ Tested for Older Idaho Snowplows

An Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) snowplow driver recently developed a “seeing eye” system to help equipment operators like himself conduct a “salt check” without having to leave the cab of older vehicle models.

[Above photo by ITD]

Skylerr Valentine explained in a blog post that a “salt check” involves navigating from the stairs of a snowplow cab across to one of the rims of the truck bed to eyeball the level of road salt carried by the vehicle; an ofttimes physically dangerous maneuver in slippery winter weather. Valentine recalled he even fell once while conducting a salt check and that multiple such checks are required during a snowplow operator’s shift.

He further explained that while computer tablets equipped inside snowplow cabs provide a video view of where the plow is positioned – showing salt and brine output numbers on the screen – the computer does not indicate when the truck bed is empty of salt.

Multiple times per shift, Valentine said he would stop to check the salt levels in the truck bed only to find the bed empty – and have no idea how long it had been empty. As a result, he’d backtrack along his route to determine where to pick back up with salt application – essentially doing the same thing over again and wasting precious time.

“I would make a 70-mile round trip, having run out but no idea where,” Valentine noted. “I had no idea how long ago it had been or how many miles really had nothing on the road.”

While ITD’s larger “wing plows” are equipped with in-cab salt check camera systems, older vehicles are not. With the help from the ITD’s Idaho Falls shed crew plus ITD electricians Josh Harris and Justin Romrell, Valentine had an outdated wing plow salt check camera system mounted on a standard plow truck as a test.

[Editor’s note: ITD employees have lately been developing a range of in-house technology solutions recently. For example, the agency recently provided an inside look at how Jeremy Wickard developed the Public Issue Tracker or PIT tool to help the agency log and address Department of Motor Vehicle concerns.]

Dubbed the “Salt Seeing Eye,” the ITD team mounted the old camera to the truck bed and wired it back into the cab, making sure it could be easily disconnected when the vehicle returned to nominal dump truck duties in the spring, summer, and fall. They then mounted the small view screen of the camera system just underneath the computer tablet typically used by snowplow operators in the vehicle’s cab.

“It was a lot of work, figuring it all out just right,” Valetine pointed out. “We really tried to make sure it was waterproof and could stand up to the elements. I wanted to see it put to the test this winter.”

This winter, Valentine has indeed had the chance to put the new tool to the test. While plowing the five-lane section of US-20 west of Idaho Falls, he’s determined from the safety of the cab that he can in fact make one more pass on his route, where he normally would have stopped to check his salt levels or headed back to the shed for a fresh salt load.

“This could really help us find discrepancies in our calibrations,” noted ITD Idaho Falls Operations Foreman Jared Loosli. “It has the potential to save a lot of money when it comes to salt ordering.”