It’s hard to imagine with temperatures reaching near record highs this weekend, but it won’t be too much longer before we need to start thinking about driving on snowy and icy roads. And the Missouri Department of Transportation is already preparing.
MoDOT has approximately 3,000 employees across the state involved in work to clear roads and bridges when winter weather hits. Last year, the organization spent $38 million on winter operations. It used 81,000 tons of salt, 928,000 gallons of salt brine and 134,000 gallons of beet juice. It’s a major operation.
A MoDOT driver named Cody took KSMU news director Michele Skalicky on a drive in his snowplow Thursday afternoon down Interstate 44. He and other MoDOT employees had taken part in the annual winter operations drill earlier in the day.
Cody has been on the job for a few years. But MoDOT state maintenance director Darin Hamelink said in a statement that nearly 19% of their snowplow operators have less than one year of experience, and more than 1/3 have less than three years of experience. And the past three years haven’t seen significant winter storms, which is why the drill this year was so important. All employees involved in winter operations were deployed to their trucks during the drill, and emergency communications systems were tested. Hamelink says the drill ensures that proper equipment, plowing techniques and safety measures are used by every MoDOT employee.
Snowplow rivers are badly needed, according to MoDOT. The agency is several hundred employees short of having full staff to plow two 12-hour shifts. Applications are being accepted at modot.org/opportunities-maintenance.
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