ST. LOUIS — While this winter isn't better or worse than years past, the cost of battling the midwest weather always adds up for MoDOT.
Andrew Gates with MoDOT told 5 On Your Side that so far this winter is coming in close to last year.
"We have had fewer events this year than last, but we have also used more material on the roadway," Gates said. "Temperatures have been hovering around freezing while precipitation has been falling. That means that we need to put down more frequent treatments during those winter storms."
Annually, MoDOT reports spending about $45 million and nearly 500,000 working hours on winter operations for the state of Missouri.
Wondering how much salt is put down on Missouri roads? Think three Gateway Arches! The Arch weighs roughly 43,000 tons and MoDOT uses 129,000 tons of salt on average every winter. Too big to wrap your mind around? Think 258 million containers of salt (using standard 26-ounce size).
Average statistics for Winter Operations the past five years: (2013-2018)
- Annual snow removal cost - $45 million
- Tons of salt used per winter – 129,000 tons
- Number of workers for winter operations – 3,200
- Number of snowplows – 1,500
- Gallons of salt brine used – 3 million gallons
- Gallons of beet juice used – 631,000 gallons
- Number of hours worked fighting winter weather – 490,000 hours
- Number of miles driven on plow trucks – 5 million miles
