The Harbour Bridge Authority in Saint John will use sugar beet juice to keep the roads clear of snow and ice this winter.

Saint John the only place in Atlantic Canada using the anti-icing product made from sugar beets.

Harbour Authority general manager Ken Anthony hopes the juice will prevent the bridge from turning into a skating rink.

He says Saint John's unique weather conditions render salt and sand virtually useless. He discovered the product last year, when extremely cold temperatures caused "sea smoke" on the harbour, that froze on contact with the road surfaces."It was about -20 and the high tide and the vapour was going across the bridge and freezing and our salt and sand, whatever we did nothing worked, it was slippery."

Bob Brown sells the beet juice and says it works well as a companion product to road salt. He says it allows the salt to work at lower temperatures. "It's de-sugared beet molasses. It allows people that are using salts to lower their salt use and it enhances the perfomance of the salt basically."

Anthony says the authority tested the product last winter. For the first time ever, there were no accidents on the bridge from slippery roads in January and February. He says the beet juice anti-icer is more expensive to use but worth the money if more lives are saved.