Along with salt, local snow plows are spreading sugar beet and corn products to combat slick roadways this winter.

When temperatures fall below 20 degrees, DeKalb County and the city of DeKalb turn to calcium chloride to melt the ice and snow.

The calcium chloride costs more than the rock salt/water mixture but is effective down to zero degrees, said Bill Lorence, an engineer with the DeKalb County Highway Department.

But when temperatures dip below zero, the county highway department turns to sugar beets.

The department uses a derivative of the beets, which Lorence called “beet juice,” to effectively melt ice and snow down to about 13 degrees below zero, Lorence said.

County plows have been modified to accommodate the liquid mixture, Lorence said. A tank system has been developed that is interchangeable with the tailgate.

“We can change from a tailgate for hauling rock to the ‘beet juice’ in ten to fifteen minutes,” he said.

The added melting power of the beet derivative comes at a cost and is used sparingly. The beet product adds 21 cents per gallon to the 5 to 6 cents per gallon for the normal sodium chloride solution.

Below 13 degrees, the highway department reverts to dropping sand to provide vehicles with traction.

During some winter storms, the county will not drop any salt.

If the snow is expected to stay dry and blow across the road, there is no benefit to adding salt, Lorence said.

The city of DeKalb began testing about 120 gallons of Geomelt, another sugar beet product, said Mark Espy, assistant director of Public Works.

While the product performed similarly to calcium chloride, it will not corrode vehicles or roadway structures, he said.

The Illinois Department of Transportation uses a product extracted from corn to melt ice from its roadways.

“It’s tacky, so the salt [mixture] tends to stay on the pavement,” said Kevin Marchek, engineer of operations with region 2 of IDOT. “It has the consistency of molasses.”

The product also is more environmentally friendly, Marchek said, and will create greater demand for Illinois corn.