County ODOT equipment ready for winter

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Like robins in the spring, the Ohio Department of Transportation annual snowplow inspection is a sure harbinger that winter isn’t far away.

District 1 ODOT mechanics and administrators, including District 1 Deputy Director Kirk Slusher, were at the Van Wert County garage on Wednesday morning to perform 150-point inspections on the garage’s fleet of 15 trucks and related snowplow equipment. The inspections ensure that ODOT equipment is ready for winter.

The inspections check to make sure that critical systems, such as hydraulics and electronics, are in tip-top shape for the winter plowing season.

With the retirement of longtime ODOT county garage manager Don Taylor, the job of ensuring that local operations are prepared for winter — and the other three seasons — falls on new Transportation Administrator Ron Leffel. Leffel, who comes to Van Wert County from Auglaize County, oversees the overall operation of the local ODOT garage, assisted by longtime Transportation Manager 2 Pat McConn and new Transportation Manager 1 Mark Zielke, who handle the day-to-day operations of the garage.

This is Leffel’s first time in ODOT’s District 1, after spending 17 years at District 7’s Auglaize County garage, and he said he has been familiarizing himself with the local garage staff and its ways of doing things.

“They (Van Wert garage employees) do things a little differently here,” he said, noting that each garage and ODOT district has its own personality. “They work we do is the same, but the way we go about it is a little different.”

For instance, Leffel noted that, in District 7, only district mechanics come out to the county garages for snowplow inspections, while administrators — including Deputy Director Kirk Slusher — also participate in the inspections in District 1.

Zielke said the inspections are critical, since today’s ODOT trucks and snowplow gear have more advanced technology than the equipment of even a few years ago.

“The trucks are totally different from what they were,” he said, noting that, when he started, the trucks were basically dump trucks with a plow made to scatter salt and push snow. “Now, they’re snow fighting machines.”

Today’s trucks can include front, wing, and belly plows, as well as sophisticated hydraulic auger systems and large tanks that mix rock salt and deicing liquids, such as brine. After mixing the salt and deicing liquids together, the trucks spread the mixture evenly on state and federal highways in ODOT District 1’s eight-county territory (Allen, Defiance, Hancock, Hardin, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert, and Wyandot).

Van Wert County trucks also are equipped with GPS/AVL (Global Positioning System/Automatic Vehicle Location) as one of 13 counties statewide participating this year in an ODOT research project. All ODOT trucks will receive the equipment in 2018.

A fact sheet provided by ODOT District 1 notes that district salt storage facilities are full, with 46,000 tons on hand and contracts to provide another 35,000 tons, for a total of approximately 81,000 tons — enough salt to combat snow and ice during a typical northwest Ohio winter.

Last year, ODOT District 1 used a total of 45,855 tons of salt and another 112,000 gallons of deicing liquids. Over the past five years, District 1 has used an average of 42,619 tons of salt and spent an average of $6,153,493 on snow and ice removal.

In addition to making sure the equipment is ready for winter, new employees are also trained on the equipment. All snowplow operators receive 80 hours of truck and loader school classes, as well as 40 hours of driving with a veteran driver, including 32 hours of nighttime driving, and training on the operation of plows and the proper salt application techniques.

New drivers get even more training, and are often out in warm weather learning how to operate their equipment so they’re ready for winter storms. District 1 typically adds up to 10 new trucks a year and releases 10 used vehicles. Each county garage received at least one new truck this year.

Statewide, ODOT has more than 1,600 plow trucks, 3,000 trained drivers (including full-time, auxiliary, and seasonal drivers), and 262 mechanics on call for snow- and ice clearing operations. ODOT maintains nearly 43,000 lane miles of state highway, which carries approximately two-thirds of the state’s daily traffic.

ODOT’s goal in winter is simple: to get highways cleared of ice and snow as quickly as possible. During the winter of 2016, District 1 crews had 95 percent of priority highways cleared in two hours or less after a storm.

Safety is also a priority for ODOT crews, with Leffel adding that motorists also need to be cautious and drive safely around snowplows. Snowplows typically drive slower than other traffic, and can also make sudden stops and turns. In addition, snow being cleared by ODOT trucks can reduce visibility around the vehicles, making it harder to see the trucks. Last year, ODOT trucks were hit by motorists 35 times last winter.