ODOT has update on snow removal costs

ODOT District 1 information

LIMA — The Ohio Department of Transportation’s District 1 has provided a winter operations update, this one showing that the district has spent more than $7.5 million ice and snow removal costs during the most expensive winter to date for the eight-county ODOT district.

Van Wert County led the district in salt brine use, with 95,290 gallons used. The next highest brine usage was in Wyandot County, which used 46,982 gallons.

The high brine use could have reduced salt usage locally. Van Wert County had the fourth-highest consumption of salt, with a total of 7,923.83 tons used so far this year. Hancock County’s salt usage was highest at 9,524 tons, while the district as a whole consumed 56,691.05 tons of salt year-to-date, compared to 43,431.13 tons used last season.

According to District 1 Deputy Director Kirk Slusher, the district has 13,360.16 tons of salt remaining on hand.

The district spent has spent nearly $2 million more this year in snow and ice removal costs than its previously worst winter of reason memory, 2010-2011, when $5.58 million was spent. Over the past decade, ODOT District 1 has spent an average of $4.1 million in snow and ice removal costs.

Another $69,700 has been spent so far to patch potholes in District 1, with Hancock County again leading the district, with $22,388.98 spent on pothole patching to date this winter.

In between storms, ODOT crews in the eight-county district repair potholes, which appear when the freeze-thaw cycle begins in late winter, with cold mix as time and weather allow.

So far, Slusher noted, this year has been a typical one in the number of pothole repairs made in the district.