Hard winter cost ODOT record amount

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

LIMA — It was a record year for snow removal expenses in northwest Ohio, according to a final winter update by the Ohio Department of Transportation’s District 1 office.

According to District 1 Deputy Director Kirk Slusher, the district, which encompasses Allen, Defiance, Hancock, Hardin, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert and Wyandot counties, spent $8,706,394.79 on snow removal expenses.

Every county, except Defiance and Hardin, spent more than $1 million on snow removal expenses, with those counties nearly making it. Hardin County was the lowest, with $840,628.16 spent, while Defiance spent $998,598.22 in snow removal costs. It cost Van Wert County’s ODOT garage $1,055,579.61 for snow removal this past winter.

Van Wert County used the most brine this winter, spreading 115,185 gallons of the salt mixture on county roads. The next highest brine user was Wyandot County, at 89,559 gallons.

The district as a whole used 62,342.95 tons of salt this winter and 463,226 gallons of brine on state and federal highways.

To put this winter’s snow removal costs into perspective, 2013-2014 expenses were more than $3 million higher than the worst winter previously on record (2010-2011), when $5.58 million was spent on snow removal costs.

This year’s total was more than twice the normal spent in the last decade on snow removal costs ($4.1 million) and more than three times what was spent during the mildest winter in recent memory (2005-2006), when $2.5 million was spent on snow removal.

In addition to snow removal, ODOT District 1 has already spent $166,611 on pothole patching efforts, with more to be spent to bring road surfaces back to pre-winter conditions.