Why read it: a public contract table is real price evidence, unlike a headline average. Pennsylvania DGS published its COSTARS road salt contract (#6100065611) for the August 2026 to July 2027 season. I read the county price table directly; the figures below come from it.
What the table shows
| Item | Figure from the contract document |
|---|---|
| Counties listed | 67, each assigned to one awarded supplier |
| Suppliers | American Rock Salt (40 counties), Cargill (7), Compass (2), Eastern (1), Morton (7), Riverside (10) |
| Lowest county bid price | $75.00 per ton (Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia) |
| Highest county bid price | $113.10 per ton (Mifflin) |
| COSTARS discounted initial-fill price range | $71.25 to $107.45 per ton |
| Tonnage-weighted average bid price (my calculation from the table’s county estimates) | about $90.80 per ton |
Contract mechanics that move the real cost
The mechanics decide the real cost more than the headline price.
- Pricing is “per ton” and the minimum order is 22 tons per stockpile location.
- Initial-fill orders run Aug 1 to Oct 31, 2026; winter usage orders run from Nov 1, 2026 to Jul 31, 2027.
- Members must commit before the season and buy at least 75% from the awarded supplier, or the supplier may charge storage fees. The supplier provides up to 140% of listed tonnage.
- Prices are set by purchase order date, and blanket delivery orders are not authorized.
Reading it as a budget owner
The spread inside one state is the budget risk.
- The spread inside one state, about $38 a ton from lowest to highest bid, shows how local salt pricing is. Compare your own bid to your county’s peers, not to a national figure.
- A cheaper per-ton price does not mean a cheaper season. Total salt spend still depends on storm count and application practice.
- Salt tonnage and edge replacement are separate lines. A lower price per ton does not reduce the number of edges a route consumes.
Boundary: this is one state’s contract for one season. It is not a national price, and I did not find a verified source for other states’ prices for this article. Do not extrapolate a national range from it. The tonnage-weighted average is my arithmetic, not a figure published by DGS.
One more caution: the table lists bid prices for delivered salt by county. It says nothing about spreading rates, storm counts or how much any agency will actually use, so it cannot predict a winter’s salt bill on its own.
Sources and further reading. External references are dated; where a figure is quoted, the link shows where it came from.
Pennsylvania DGS COSTARS: Do’s & Don’ts of the Road Salt Contract #6100065611, 2026-27 season (August 2026 – July 2027 season) ↗All Research and Synthesis Projects – Clear Roads (accessed 2026-10-24) ↗Cooperative Purchasing for Winter Wear Parts: Joining a Larger Buy ↗Carbide snow plow blades ↗Route Optimization for Snowplows: What Adaptive-Route Research Means for Pass Count and Wear ↗
