Salt Barns – High Capacity Salt Storage

Storing salt outside creates huge problems for Councils and Highways Contractors as rain will cause this to degrade, leaching noxious chemicals into the local waterways and environment.

Additionally, damp salt can freeze making it difficult to load and even harder to spread efficiently – indeed, the spread rate for outdoor stored salt will be approximately 50% higher than that for dry salt.

High capacity salt barn
Unlike a round or dome shaped structure, a salt barn from De Boer will enable you to maximise your capacity for a given footprint. Retaining push walls (typically in pre-cast concrete panels for robustness) are provided to 4m in height and all calculations are prepared on the basis that the salt pile will be surcharged above this level.

Salt pile – angle of repose
The salt will naturally rest at an angle that reflects the roof-line of a De Boer salt barn whilst the 8m high eaves height ensures that you have ample space to operate machinery to maximise capacity

Natural light – reducing your whole life costs
The translucent roof sail allows for a huge amount of borrowed light within the facility, meaning that you are unlikely to require artificial lighting whilst receiving salt deliveries. In the event that your site is surrounded by residential properties and there are concerns over light spill during night time operations, an opaque material can be used to limit the nuisance created – each project is considered on an individual basis.

Cross ventilation – design benefits
All De Boer salt barns are designed to promote the free movement of air across the salt pile. This ensures that the salt is dried by the constant air circulation whilst any fumes from vehicles or plant are quickly cleared from the operational area.

Robust and yet flexible
This style of structure has been in use in Sweden for more than 30 years and is designed to cope with the rigours of the Scandinavian Winter. The Swedish Highways Authority have a large number of smaller structures in use with a number of larger, port based, strategic stock piles of up to 30,000 tonnes capacity.

Salt barns within the UK are typically operated by individual Councils and range in size from 3,500 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes.

The design of the standard salt barn allows for the structure to be moved (or extended) with the minimum of work should the needs of your organisation change over time.

Quick to install
Key elements of the fabrication process are carried out off-site, thereby reducing the impact on your operational depot – we recognise that you have a working depot to keep running and will therefore time our deliveries around your peak operational times.

Delivery of the Wigan salt barn (20m x 30m) took 12 working days…

Funding your salt barn
The operational savings that can be achieved using covered salt will allow you to demonstrate a clear business case for ‘Invest and Save’ funding – delivering long term reductions in your Winter maintenance costs.

Many Local Authorities are also able to gain access to resilience funding on the basis that the salt barn improves their organisational resilience and enhances the delivery of local services.