ODOT District 5 Preparing for Winter

ZANESVILLE, OH – As much as we don’t want to think about it, winter is coming but the Ohio Department of Transportation is making sure they’re ready for whatever it may bring.

Crews here in Muskingum County were out on Friday servicing the plows that will be hitting the roads to clear snow and ice, making sure everyone gets from point A to point B safely.

Chas Cosgrave, the ODOT District 5 Public Information Officer, says the inspections cover over 150 important points of each snow removal vehicle, from the blow arms to the salt spreader.

“So several items on the inspection list, like I said, it’s a 150 point inspection.” Cosgrave said. “That is everything from making sure that the salt spreaders are operating correctly, the plow blades are moving correctly, that they’re serviceable as well, but then that even goes in to the motor, the tires, everything, top to bottom, we want to make sure that they’re ready to respond to any winter events.”

Cosgrave says that the Central Ohio region has about 90,000 tons of salt and the District 5 Garage has 55,000 tons ready for when winter strikes.

He also provided some numbers of plows being hit and damaged as a result as well as what drivers need to keep in mind as we begin to see the plows on the roads again.

“So unfortunately last winter we had 58 plow strikes.” Cosgrave said. “We want to remind people, give us room to work.”

If you’d like to join the ODOT team to help remove snow this winter, you can head to careers.ohio.gov.