MoDOT prepares for the first snow of the season in Mid-Missouri
The first snow of the season comes with dangerous road conditions. And the Missouri Department of Transportation has already made plans for clearing the roads Saturday.
The MoDOT Central District covers 18 counties and about 11,000 miles of pavement, so it starts getting ready early.
Last week, it went through a winter operations drill to make sure all of the equipment was running properly. Wednesday and Thursday of this week, MoDOT put down a beet juice brine on bridge decks. That solution brings up the melting temperature on surfaces that can become icy easily.
Randy Aulber with MoDot says snow-removal crews have been told to come in Saturday morning.
Randy Aulbur, Missouri Department of Transportation: “We’re looking at 8/9:00 having crews come in and be ready on that side of the district and ramp up operations and basically stagger that as the event moves. This one is going to move pretty fast.”
MoDOT says the Central District has nearly 600 employees and more than 200 trucks ready to work and clear roads.
On average, MoDOT spends about $48 million state-wide on snow removal. But last year, Aulbur says it spent significantly more than that.
In Central Missouri, MoDOT has about 33,500 tons of salt stored for this season’s snowfall in 26 sheds that are spread across the district.
Aulbur says check road conditions first if you are planning on driving this weekend and know that roads may be slick, even if it doesn’t look like they are.
Aulbur: “If you’re going into winter driving make sure you have a plan before you go into it. Make you you have an emergency kit with you in case you do run into trouble because that’s really what you get into. Your car doesn’t always run the way it did weather was nice.”
Aulbur says MoDOT has an automated call system that will notify workers to plow the roads at any hour and make Missouri roads safer for drivers.
You can find MoDOT road conditions in Columbia and Jefferson City here or by calling 1-888-ASK-MODOT.
