Salt Storage
This week the government released an Interim Report on ‘Salt Supply and Use’ in the UK.
“For two winters in a row, severe weather has caused significant disruption for transport in this country. The cost to the economy and the disruption to the public has been significant, and there has been a level of dissatisfaction and confusion about the response by Government at both local and national level.” – was the findings of an independent review of the transport sector’s response to last winter.
The interim report focuses its findings on the action taken by; the government, local and national highways authorities and salt suppliers. These findings will prompt all parties concerned, to ensure that they are prepared for winters to come, and that the disruptions to the nations highways are not effected as severely as they have been in previous years.
Recommendations have been made to ensure the Highways Agency have a sufficient supply of salt for this winter and should take action to source and import enough salt to establish and manage national strategic stockpiles of up to 250,000 tonnes.
As a result of these findings many local authorities and suppliers will be looking to increase their storage capacity of salt for this winter, which may include; extending existing salt storage buildings, or the construction of new salt barns.
A common construction material for building walls to retain the salt is concrete. The structural properties of concrete combined with its durability to withstand exposure to salt, make it ideal for constructing salt barns. Organisations and local authorities are also utilising the advantages of using precast concrete products to construct salt storage facilities. Using precast concrete products is a more time and cost effective method of building these types of structures as they reduce the labour and material costs onsite and can be quickly installed and used.
JP Concrete supply precast concrete retaining wall units that are ideal for this situation. L-shape units 1m wide and up to 3.8m high are manufactured with steel reinforcing cast into the structure ready for fast installation either by bolting the unit to an existing concrete foundation slab, or they can be cast into a new concrete floor.
For full product details and a free quotation please get in touch.