The Carver Companies giant salt warehouses are looking a emptier than usual these days.

“I’ve been here eight years at the Port of Coeymans and I’ve never seen the truck traffic this busy for salt pickups,” said Carver Companies VP of Sales and Business Development Josh Kowalski.

Vehicle after vehicle moved into place and was filled up with salt to go out, sometimes to communities out of the area.

The warehouses are pretty empty. It’s an unusual sight.

“We’re getting phone calls from Buffalo, from Syracuse, Rochester and then a lot from out of state as well– New Jersey, Connecticut,” said Kowalski.

The salt comes here on ships from places all over the world, like Egypt, Turkey, Israel, and Italy.

On a good year, the Port of Coeymans can move upwards of 700,000 tons of salt and then load it to deliver to municipalities, but this year may have that beat.

“I think this year could be a record year based on the amount of storms we’ve been getting, and the kind of storms that we are, where you have two, three inches and you get a little snow bank and then you have a little melt and then a freeze, and I think that’s when municipalities need more and more salt,” said Kowalski.

Also, the newly enacted Buy American Salt Act mandates that salt used for government contracts must be mined in the United States, so there’s a lot of demand on those suppliers.

Last week, citing a statewide salt shortage, the city of Troy issued an emergency declaration that allows them to buy road salt from other suppliers.

Carver Companies has barges and tugboats, a full construction company, and leases space for large construction projects, as well as the giant warehouses for salt storage and distribution. The company also does salt packaging for customers.

Kowalski is proud of what they do– helping to keep the roads and people safe.

“The service provided by us and our tenants is really for the safety and the benefit of the community as a whole,” he said. “I mean, if the roads are icy, people can’t get to work, so the salt is a good thing for these times we’re going through.”