DAYTON, Ohio -- Street maintenance will have to pay more to treat area roadways this winter. That’s because salt prices have more than doubled after last winter, due to the amount of snow that fell across the country.

“Cities and departments of transportation doubled their orders because they ran out of salt last year,” said Dave Miller superintendent of Kettering Street Maintenance. “So, salt supplies dwindled to nothing last year.”

Salt mine reserves also dwindled to nothing. The mines still contain plenty of salt, but the configuration of these mines limits how fast miners can extract the salt.

Even with miners working overtime nearly 24/7 they’re having a hard time catching up after last winter.

“With mines having problems getting it out of the mines fast enough, they’re now bringing salt in from offshore,” said Miller.

That offshore salt is expensive to begin with. Add to that the summer’s high gas prices and the price jumps even higher.

Most of the Miami Valley’s salt comes from mines in Louisiana, which is shipped up the Mississippi River. Summer floods along the river slowed transport, and made matters even worse when it comes to salt prices.

In addition, cities, counties and departments of transportation around the country are purchasing more salt than usual this year to make sure they don’t run out again. That has further strained the supply chain.

“Until the process gets caught up, we’re all going to pay more for salt,” said Miller.

Street maintenance crews say they will use the salt they have more wisely this winter, to make sure they don’t waste any of this precious resource.