These hygroscopic properties are also applied to keep a liquid layer on the surface of dirt roads, which holds dust down. This keeps the finer dust particles on the road, providing a cushioning layer. 

By depressing the freezing point of water, calcium chloride is used to prevent ice formation and to deice. This is particularly useful on road surfaces.

Calcium chloride is used in concrete mixes to help speed up the initial setting, but chloride ions lead to corrosion of steel rebar, so it should not be used in reinforced concrete. The anhydrous form of calcium chloride may also be used for this purpose and can provide a measure of the moisture in concrete.

Calcium chloride is included as an additive in plastics and in fire extinguishers, in wastewater treatment as a drainage aid, in blast furnaces as an additive to control scaffolding (clumping and adhesion of materials that prevent the furnace charge from descending), and in fabric softener as a thinner.
The exothermic dissolution of calcium chloride is used in self-heating cans and heating pads.
In the oil industry, calcium chloride is used to increase the density of solids-free brines. It is also used to provide inhibition of swelling clays in the water phase of invert emulsion drilling fluids.