By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Snow is in the forecast for this weekend, but area motorists have nothing to worry about. Ohio Department of Transportation snowplow trucks in Crawford County are all checked out and ready to go following Wednesday’s inspection.
Public Information Officer Christine Myers says the annual event ensures the snowplows are operable for what’s ahead.
“What we’re actually doing today is inspecting the trucks to make sure they are all ready to go for the winter time,” Myers said “What we’re doing today is making sure the hydraulics are working properly and everything is ready to go when the snow starts flying.”
Last winter set state records for ODOT including most road salt used (over 100 million tons), most money spent ($199 million) and most snowplow miles driven (more than 14 million). The Crawford County ODOT garage already has more than 5,200 tons of road salt on hand.
Myers said more salt is coming.
“We’re certainly hoping it’s a lot better than last year,” Myers said in reference to the record-setting winter in North Central Ohio. “Last year we had several days in a row when these trucks were running 24 hours straight, actually several weeks in a row that was the case.”
New this year, ODOT has completed installation of green, white and amber lights on all its 1,700 snowplow trucks in Ohio. Over 3,000 ODOT employees are trained and certified snowplow operators and will maintain almost 43,000 lane miles of highway.
All told, ODOT will have more than 1.1 million tons of salt on hand including 145,000 tons left at the end of last year.
Some tips for driving near a snowplow:
• Don’t crowd the plow;
• Watch for clouds of snow
• Keep lights and windows clear
Motorists can check on current road conditions in all of Ohio’s 88 counties at any time by going online to www.ohgo.com.