Switch to full site

Winter not over in Ohio for plows and salt trucks

[image]

The calendar says that Winter officially ends today, but that doesn't mean that road departments are putting their plows away.

The Ohio Turnpike Commission says that Northern Ohio has had snowfall as late as May 10, so the season may not be completely over yet according to Turnpike Maintenance Engineer Chris Matta.

“If we do get another blast of winter, customers can rest assured our crews will be out there," added Matta

From last November until recently, Ohio Turnpike personnel performed snow and ice control on 241 miles of mainline, 31 interchanges and 14 service plazas. Through March 16, 2015, crews battled over 30 storm events across eight maintenance sections and used 74,000 tons of salt.

"The average yearly use is about 67,000 tons, which means we are a little higher than normal but thankfully not where we were last year (100,000 tons) " said Matta.

"In addition to the rock salt, we have used more than 200,000 gallons of liquid chlorides to pre-wet the rock salt and to pre-treat bridge decks," said Matta. "Pre-wetting is a strategy of applying a liquid deicing solution to salt during its application to the pavement to reduce bounce and scatter. The pre-treatment deicing on quick-freezing bridge decks helps prevent accidents."

The total cost of labor and materials is higher than historical averages with material usage making up about 65 percent of the cost, mainly due to higher than normal salt costs. Turnpike crews have patrolled, plowed and spread material as they fought over 30 different storms events across our eight maintenance sections to prepare for—and respond to—snow and ice events.


© Copyright 2000 - 2025 WorldNow and WFMJ