COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Transportation is ready to tackle what comes their way.
Across the state, ODOT has 1,800 plows, 3,400 drivers and 820,000 tons of salt ready, which is about 96% total salt capacity.
“Fortunately, year-to-year even amidst a global pandemic, snow really stays the same,” Brooke Ebersole said.
Ebersole is the Public Information Officer for Ohio Department of Transportation - District 6.
“Our tools that we use to combat snow, generally, stay the same,” Ebersole said.
As for Monday, they had a quick change in plans.
“Originally, we anticipated that it would really rain throughout most of today, really wouldn’t turn to snow until this evening into tonight. That’s not what we saw, so if you looked out your window at about 10 o’clock this morning, you saw flurries galore right,” Ebersole said.
That’s when ODOT made the decision to increase crews and truck numbers from 100 in central Ohio to 200.
There are 40 crews in Franklin County.
More snow showers are expected to move into central Ohio Monday night and into tomorrow. A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for all of central Ohio through Tuesday morning.
Despite the expected snow, Ebersole is not concerned about accumulation.
“At this point of time, the pavement temperatures are well above freezing and they’re hovering right in that 40 to 41 degree area so we’re not worried really just yet about accumulation, but right around this time is when we send crews out to monitor,” Ebersole said.
She said with the pavements being that warm, there’s isn’t much of a need just yet to pre-treat the roads.
“When a storm comes in as rain, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to pre-treat with brine,” Ebersole said.
Brine is their salt and water mixture. Ebersole said the rain will wash it away.
“We’re not looking for ice, we’re not really looking for a ton of accumulation yet, but with that being said just last night the pavement temperatures were 48 degrees, they’re already down to 40 so we’re watching them drop just a little more every hour,” Ebersole said.
She said crews especially pay close attention to ramps and bridges.
ODOT’s reminders to drivers now and this winter is to take it slow and be cautious out there.
“Now we’ve had two seasons where it really hasn’t snowed, so not only are we not used to driving in the snow, but being amidst a pandemic, there’s a lot of people who haven’t driven at all the last couple of weeks,” Ebersole said.
She said it’s important to remember to stay at least 200 feet away from a plow and to remember they aren’t able to stop as quickly as a car can.
The plow itself weighs about 2,000 pounds.