KENSINGTON, Md. — There’s a plan to build a new winter salt barn right near the Capital Beltway, but some people voiced concerns about it at a public meeting Monday night.
The Maryland State Highway Administration wants to build the barn in the right of way along the ramp from the Outer Loop to Connecticut Avenue. A new ramp will be built allowing salt trucks that have loaded at the barn to then cross Connecticut Avenue and get right back on the Beltway.
The SHA says the barn will be able to hold up to 10,000 tons of salt, and up to 40 trucks will be able to line up at the site without interfering with traffic using the ramp.
The point of the SHA’s plan is to expand salt availability to trucks that pre-treat and clear the top side of the Beltway and southern Montgomery County.
“Compared to neighboring Prince George’s County, Montgomery County has far fewer salt storage facilities, yet gets much more snow,” said David Coyne, deputy administrator/chief engineer for operations with the SHA. “Montgomery County has four salt storage facilities; Prince George’s County has nine. Montgomery County averages about 39 inches of snow; Prince George’s County averages about 28 inches, and that’s [the past five years]”
The agency says the new barn is also needed because it plans to close its Kensington Salt Dome, on Howard Avenue, which can only hold 4,400 tons of salt and is in a spot where trucks lining up to get in often back up onto nearby roads.
The environment is another problem.
The Kensington Salt Dome has no stormwater management facilities and no room to add them, whereas the new Connecticut Avenue barn will have those facilities in order to protect nearby Rock Creek.
Some people at the meeting said they were worried about the plan.
“The rescue squad down the street said that it is a disaster for them in the snow trying to get to people up and down the Beltway, and they thought that your site proposal for us here was foolish. And that’s their word, not ours,” said one woman.
Others had concerns about the possibility of added noise and light.
“How high and how much light is going to be there, both on a usage and a non-usage time?” another woman asked.
Officials at the meeting said additional lighting would be minimal and the tallest lights in the area are those already existing along the ramp.
Read more about the state’s salt barn plan here.
