ODOT Begins Preparations for Winter Season

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- As the night’s get longer you may be noticing it getting increasingly chillier each day. And while we haven’t dropped below freezing yet, preparations for winter are now  underway. 

On Thursday, the Ohio Department of Transportation District 5 was completing a 150 point inspection on the 24 snowplows in their arsenal to keep Muskingum County’s roads clear this winter. While snow isn’t expected anytime soon, now is the prime window for gearing up for snow removal.

“The reason that we do this now is because if we need repairs to be made, now is the time to do it before the snow flies,” Morgan Overbey, public information officer for ODOT District #5 stated.

The Ohio Department of Transportation has 62,000 tons of salt for dispersion for Muskingum County alone. Salt isn’t the only tool ODOT has to help fend off the snow, especially as temperatures get too cold for salt to be as effective.

“Once the temperatures get pretty low, below 20°, you’re going to see us use a mixture of beat heat. So that’s effective when temperatures are lower. But other than that, we’re always going to be using a mixture of salt and brine. That liquid really gets the salt working, and you’re going to see the snow burn off a lot faster when we’re using liquids,” Overbey said.

While we can’t be too sure how much snow we’ll see this winter, the one thing we can be sure of is that ODOT is going to be as prepared as possible to keep our roads clear this snow season.