Part of Missouri has gotten its first slap from winter. And that means some Missouri road crews have gone into battle for the first time this winter season.
The state transportation department sets a deadline for itself every year: Be ready for winter by November first. Preparation is a year-round effort that involves calculating how much snow and ice-melting salt and liquids will be needed, fixing the trucks and plows after a rugged winter so they’re ready for the next season, and making sure workers are trained and ready for the next season..
Department spokesman Melissa Black says the key is to anticipate the weather…and have crews and machines ready to roll. “They stay to stay in front of it. They don’t want it building up on the roads…That’s the last thing we want is for the snow and ice to accumulate on the roads…and if we have the notice then we send our folks out there to make sure the roads are treated,’ she says.
Last winter the department spent 41-million dollars fighting snow and ice on the roads. Three-thousand workers put in 465-thousand hours and used 16-hundred-50 vehicles to fight everything last year’s winter could throw at us.