“Road Salt -- How it works, and how best to use it” is the subject of a talk to be given Friday, Feb. 20 by a University of Iowa internationally known expert on winter highway maintenance.

UI professor of civil and environmental engineering Wilfrid Nixon will speak to about 420 Cedar Rapids 9th grade students at Prairie Point Middle School & Ninth Grade Academy, 401 76th Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The students have researched environmental impacts of salt usage, as well as possible alternatives to salt, and they plan to test Cedar Rapids road mixtures.