The city of Calgary says it has spent more than $2 million this year trying to save a number of Calgary’s fire trucks.
The money was spent to repair the steel frames on nine of its trucks— that’s about a fifth of the fleet.
The department said road salt is thought to be the source of the corrosion, eating away at the older trucks in the fleet which are only around 10 years old.
But the department says it is a quicker alternative than ordering replacement trucks, which, due to backlog, could take up to four years to deliver.
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The cost of a replacement truck can also be steep, at up to $1.5 million.
The city of Calgary uses about 40 to 50 thousand tonnes of road salt on city roads every year.
A chemical engineer who spoke with Global News, Arthur Potts, suggests more frequent washing of the vehicle’s undercarriage, or applying a wax sealing solution to the trucks, could help slow down the corrosion process caused by the chemicals.
Fire trucks are washed regularly. Would they not wash the undercarriage as well? That alone would prevent salt corrosion.
Just think how long our vehicles would last and how much safer they would be without rotting out. Salt eats away at rebar and other metals in our bridges as well. Bring on the global warming and that’s one problem solved.