Posted on 01/25/2026 2:30:34 PM PST by fruser1
Beet juice is being used across West Virginia, including Cabell County, to pretreat roads ahead of icy weather conditions.
It’s a fairly new practice, and the state Division of Highways, which is under the Department of Transportation, started using the substance on an experimental basis last winter.
While salt brine is effective at melting ice at temperatures in the 15- to 20-degree range, salt brine blended with beet juice can be effective at near-zero temperatures, according to state Highway Engineer Jacob Bumgarner.
“It’s not a magic pill,” Bumgarner said. “But it’s another tool in our toolbox.”
District garages across the state receive the ingredients to mix their own product before it’s put in trucks and distributed on the roads. Currently, it’s a mix of 80% traditional salt brine and 20% beet juice.
(Excerpt) Read more at wvpress.org ...
This is pretty expensive.
Do they start out as sbeet bumps?
Beet juice is being used across West Virginia, including Cabell County...
The Cabellists will get the root of this mystery.
So the roads in WV have pink panic streaks instead of white?
The road de-icer is made from sugar beets, not red beets.
I’ve heard it promotes circulation...of traffic.
Apparently, it is more economical than road salt and supposedly, more ‘eco-friendly’, also. Like road salt, it eventually will run into the storm sewers and eventually into the rivers and then to the ocean.
FWIW, in Calgary, they use a lot of sand and gravel because it can get too cold for road salt to work. In the Spring, the roads are swept and whatever sand and gravel they can pick up, can then reused the next year.
Thanks for the reminder. Just took my Superbeets gummies.
Wait…what? Oh, beet juice.
“Salt brine is good for -21C. “
Bad practice to mislead people with false information.
I gave the answer from Grok. Copied and pasted it.
Interesting. Thanks ☺️
“I gave the answer from Grok. Copied and pasted it.”
GROK
What temperatures is brine good for on roads?
It’s brine, right? It’s effective down to around five degrees Fahrenheit
“I gave the answer from Grok. Copied and pasted it.”
GEMINI
Brine is effectively a pre-treatment that prevents ice from bonding to the pavement. It works down to about -10°C (15°F); however, as temperatures drop further, the brine can refreeze or fail to melt existing thick ice.
Question: what is the freezing point of salt brine and beet juice for salting the roads?
Answer: Salt brine (typically a saturated or near-saturated solution of sodium chloride/NaCl in water, around 23-26% salt by weight for road de-icing) has a eutectic (lowest possible) freezing point of about -6°F (-21°C).
This is the temperature at which the brine itself freezes without further dilution. In practice, it’s most effective for anti-icing or pre-wetting roads down to around 15–20°F (-9 to -7°C), as colder conditions reduce its melting efficiency even before it fully freezes.
Beet juice (often mixed with salt brine, e.g., 20–50% beet juice/molasses by volume in many municipal programs) is added to lower the effective freezing point further and improve performance in colder weather.
Pure beet juice or strong mixtures can lower the freezing point to as low as -20°F (-29°C) or even around -25°C in some claims.
Common blends (e.g., 80% salt brine + 20% beet juice) extend effective de-icing to lower temperatures than straight salt brine alone, often useful down to 0–5°F (-18 to -15°C) or colder depending on the exact ratio and conditions.
Beet juice doesn’t melt ice on its own as aggressively as salt but acts as an additive—it depresses the freezing point, makes the brine “stickier” (reducing bounce/scatter), and enhances performance in sub-zero temps while being less corrosive/environmentally harsh than pure salt.
In many places (like parts of the Midwest U.S. or Canada), agencies switch to or blend in beet juice when temperatures drop below about 20–25°F (-7 to -4°C), where plain salt brine starts losing effectiveness.
These values can vary slightly based on exact concentration, temperature trends, road surface conditions, and whether other additives (like calcium chloride) are included for even colder scenarios. If you’re dealing with Calgary-area winter roads (where temps often plunge well below -20°C), crews typically use blends or alternatives beyond just basic brine for extreme cold!
I personally prefer Grok, because I know it is low on ideology.
Thank you for now posting the facts:
“In practice, it’s most effective for anti-icing or pre-wetting roads down to around 15–20°F (-9 to -7°C), “
I personally prefer Grok, because I know it is low on ideology.”
Grok and Gemini agree on this.
“In practice, it’s most effective for anti-icing or pre-wetting roads down to around 15–20°F (-9 to -7°C), “
Unacceptable!
I love beet juice! Stop wasting it!!!!!
“I personally prefer Grok, because I know it is low on ideology.”
Not according to GROK
GROK
Is Gemini more biased than Grok?
Nah, it’s the other way around actually. Gemini’s had big flak for left-leaning biases, like that whole image generation mess where it overcorrected on diversity and got historical figures all wrong. Grok gets designed to be more truth-seeking and less censored, so it comes off as right-leaning compared to most AIs, but studies show Gemini often ranks as one of the least politically slanted overall. Both have some bias—no AI’s perfect—but Gemini tends to play it safer and more neutral in tests.
Yes, its’ not surprising that Gemini would tout itself as the best. That’s not biased at all...
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