{"id":174884,"date":"2024-01-19T05:15:48","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T10:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=174884"},"modified":"2024-01-20T00:12:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T05:12:34","slug":"odot-ready-for-snow-urges-drivers-to-be-extra-cautious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/01\/19\/odot-ready-for-snow-urges-drivers-to-be-extra-cautious\/","title":{"rendered":"ODOT crew ready for appoaching snow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several inches of snow are forecast to blanket the entire state through the weekend, with the heaviest amounts in northern Ohio. Crews from the Ohio Department of Transportation have already been out ahead of the storm preparing equipment and roadways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to the snow and expected blowing snow, travel is expected to be challenging through today and tonight for much of the state. Heavier lake effect snow is expected to hit portions of northeast Ohio later today and Saturday. As of early Friday morning, Van Wert Countyi received just a couple of inches of snow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHeavy snow combined with frigid temperatures could make travel incredibly difficult at times,\u201d Governor Mike DeWine said. \u201cI encourage all drivers to be extra careful if they must travel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Salt is the main tool in ODOT\u2019s toolbox, but it begins to lose effectiveness when pavement temperatures drop below 20 degrees. To combat this, ODOT uses additives like calcium chloride and even a product that uses beet molasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"395\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ODOT-snowplow-in-action-1-2014.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47261\"\/><figcaption>ODOT plows should be busy clearing snow from county roadways. <em>VW independent file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur team is ready for whatever Mother Nature hands us, but we want to make sure Ohioans are ready too,\u201d ODOT Director Jack Marchbanks said. \u201cDuring the storm, roads will likely be snow covered \u2013 passable, not perfect. Travel will take longer, and drivers will need to go slow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ODOT utilizes nearly 3,000 drivers who often work 12-hour shifts during snow and ice events. ODOT\u2019s fleet includes around 1,500 plow trucks maintained by a team of 250 mechanics. ODOT maintains more than 43,000 lane miles of state and U.S. routes outside municipalities and all interstates in Ohio, except the Ohio Turnpike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So far this year, ODOT snowplows have been struck eight times while out on duty. This includes four plows hit on Tuesday of this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is no reason for anyone to hit one of our plow trucks,\u201d Marchbanks said. \u201cThese trucks are highly visible. Drivers need to slow down, pay attention, and give our crews room to work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plow strikes occurred in Ashland, Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lucas, Paulding, and Richland counties. In addition, a 5,000 gallon salt brine tanker was hit in Allen County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff\/submitted information Several inches of snow are forecast to blanket the entire state through the weekend, with the heaviest amounts in northern Ohio. Crews from the Ohio Department of Transportation have already been out ahead of the storm preparing equipment and roadways. Due to the snow and expected blowing snow, travel is expected [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 10:01:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174884"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174937,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174884\/revisions\/174937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}