Salt calculators · Roads

Road salt calculator

Work out how much salt a route or a whole road network needs, what it costs, and how much chloride it releases, in metric or US units.

Example values are filled in. Replace them with your own.

How it's calculated

Lane-kilometres = road length (km) × number of lanes. Total salt (kg) = lane-km × rate (kg per lane-km) × number of applications.

Conversions use exact definitions: 1 mile = 1.609344 km and 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg, so 1 lb per lane-mile = 0.2818 kg per lane-km. A short ton is 907.18474 kg; a metric tonne is 1,000 kg. Chloride is 60.66% of sodium chloride by weight (35.453 of 58.443 g/mol).

Note: This calculator does not recommend a rate. Use the rates in your agency's salt management plan, which depend on pavement temperature, the type of storm and whether salt is pre-wetted. Dry rock salt works slowly below about 15 °F (−9 °C) pavement temperature.

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