§ Mr. Roger Kingasked the Secretary of State for Transport what experiments are being conducted with alternative methods of road surface de-icing, particularly with reference to overhead sections of motorway.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe use of salt for de-icing the midland links viaducts has caused corrosion problems, so we are considering various other ways of tackling these problems, including the possible use of urea as an alternative de-icing agent. We recently carried out a successful experiment to test the feasibility of spreading urea on the viaducts. Although more expensive than salt, urea does not corrode steel. It is already used on the Severn and Avonmouth bridges.