The Council Gritter Traditional Cache
Workyticket: As there appears to have been no response from the CO we are archiving this cache listing to prevent it from continually showing up in search lists and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements in the area. Once a cache is archived for non-responsiveness (including the cache page) it can't be unarchived.
Drew and Kaz
Workyticket
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Small container located near the Teesside Grit Depot remember to bring a pen or pencil to sign log.
De-icing or gritting salt is nothing like the white grains we use to season food. Made from crushed rock salt carved out of underground mines, it is brownish in colour and resembles gravel.
The salt used to melt ice and add traction on the UK's snow-covered byways comes not from the sea but from three main mines in Cheshire, Teesside and one in Ireland County Antrim.
These deposits were formed millions of years ago when the UK and Ireland were covered by inland seas. Over time, the seawater evaporated, leaving vast salty deposits that were gradually covered over. Some are 100m deep, others well over 1.6km - a mile - underground.
Today rock salt is extracted by machines known as continuous miners fitted with rotating steel cutting picks which grind salt from the walls of these vast cathedral-like spaces.
The salt is then carried away from the cutting surface by conveyor belts to be crushed and treated further. It is treated with anti-caking agent, then put into storage to await transportation to gritting depots by lorry or rail.
Those who work the salt mines are trained engineers who keep the machinery running - a far cry from the pickaxes and buckets used in the mines' early days in the 1800s, when rock salt was primarily used for salt licks - blocks of salt - for animals.
Rock salt is now used for winter highway maintenance as salt lowers the freezing point of water to below zero Celsius - how low depends on the concentration of salt to water.
This means when salt is spread over a road or a footpath, it either melts the snow and ice as it dissolves, or helps prevent ice forming.
Remember, table salt is used to season food and is fine to eat in moderation.
However, salt from the council gritter is brown with a foul taste and should never be eaten.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Obggbz Raq
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