Caught short of road salt by last winter's continual ice and snow and hit with a blizzard of criticism as a result, Baltimore County plans to spend $1 million to triple its salt capacity by building four new storage facilities.

The County Council is to vote Sept. 7 on a budget transfer to pay for building 42-foot-tall barn-like storage shelters in Woodlawn, Cockeysville and Perry Hall that each can hold 5,000 tons of salt. A 1,000-ton shelter would be built in Dundalk.

Public Works Director Thomas Hamer said the county will pay a bonus if work is completed by Dec. 1. The transfer of $429,000 from other accounts will expand the amount the county originally had planned to spend for new salt storage.

Before last winter, Mr. Hamer said the county had planned to build only one 5,000-ton shed and two new 1,000-ton buildings. The new shelters, built on concrete slabs with concrete and wooden walls, will resemble farm barns, unlike the state's conical salt shelters.

The new shelters would enlarge the county's salt storage capacity from 8,500 tons to 24,500 tons, the supply needed for a normal winter.

The severe ice and snow and exceedingly low temperatures that hit the area this winter forced the county to buy 47,000 tons of salt and 40,000 more tons of slag cinders for roads.