“Shotcrete domes… are the most common salt storage structures being built today.” Rocky Mountain Construction Magazine

The old and the new

For many years highway departments and airports stockpiled salt outdoors, near runways and major thoroughfares, to simplify de-icing roads and runways. They halted this practice when they discovered that if a salt pile got wet, the run-off made its way into nearby streams, concentrate in a certain area and kill the vegetation.

(There doesn’t seem to be much problem with salt run-off when spread out on the streets. The problem occurs with run-off from a concentrated source, such as a pile.)

Currently salt is stockpiled indoors in industrial storage units.

Salt in metal or wood

Any building that will hold salt can certainly be used as a storage, but metal buildings tend to rust away very rapidly when storing salt. The condensation, rain, and wet conditions put the ionized salt against the metal and destroy it fairly quickly.

Wood buildings do better than metal, but they have their own problems. Salt rusts the nail heads and destroys anything corrodible within the storage. And wood storages often do not tolerate damage caused by equipment mishaps. Then too, many wood slat storages have been set on fire, either by accident or by vandals.

Salt in Monolithic concrete storages

Monolithic Domes are solid concrete on the inside. Concrete handles salt damage far better than just about any other building material.

Because the domes are strong, it’s difficult to damage one with a front-end loader. They are also disaster-proof, fire-resistant and virtually vandal-proof.

The Monolithic Dome is also super-insulated. That insulation and its Airform covering protect the building from water. Condensation is virtually non-existent with a Monolithic Dome; therefore salt within the dome stays dry. Dry salt in not nearly as corrosive as wet salt.

A Monolithic Dome salt storage costs about as much as a wood structure. The dome’s life expectancy is so much longer than that of wood or metal, that it was determined years ago that the best salt storages are Monolithic Domes.

Recommendations by Rocky Mountain Construction Magazine for selecting salt storage sites:

1. Safety for those who work in or use the storage area and for those driving by on access roads, plus security to keep out persons who have no business at the site
2. Easy accessibility to the site and in and out of the storage facility itself
3. Compliance with local ordinances and regulations
4. Attractiveness, with well-maintained buildings and good onsite housekeeping
5. Economy, that is, avoiding waste of salt from inclement weather, and locating the storage facility to avoid long distance hauling
6. Controlled drainage from the stockpile, which should be on a properly sloped bituminous pad and containment of drainage to avoid environmental problems with the surrounding area

References

• “Covered salt storage essential to good snow control operation.” Rocky Mountain Construction Magazine, September 19, 1988, P. N-19