Local agencies brace for winter snows

    Temperatures are predicted to climb into the mid-60s by week?s end, but it won?t be long until we see snow plows moving snow and dump trucks sprinkling salt. City and county officials have begun to prepare their vehicles and other supplies for the weather that is just around the corner.

    County Engineer David Patterson said the county has already purchased all of the salt it will use this winter.

    ?What a lot of counties will do is buy salt during the winter as they use it,? said Patterson. ?We buy the salt all at once in the summer when it?s cheap.?

    Patterson said the county is able to do that because 10 years ago it built a shed large enough to hold a year?s worth of salt. The shed is even large enough to hold the salt used by the city. Patterson said the county typically spends $150,000 a year on salt.

    The county is responsible for clearing 850 miles of road, 700 of which are gravel. Patterson said that salt is only used on the 150 miles of paved roads because salt does more harm than good on gravel.

    ?You want gravel roads to freeze because they?ll get hard,? he said.

    Patterson added that the county doesn?t plow every road after every snowfall. If the snow cover is light, the county may elect to plow only the paved roads.

    ?When you try to plow 2 inches of snow on gravel, you make the road worse,? said Patterson. ?Our equipment may just make a big mess if we tried to do that.?

    Unlike the Iowa Department of Transportation, the county does not pre-treat roads prior to a predicted freeze.

    Brien Keltner, Iowa DOT Supervisor for Washington and Mount Pleasant, said the DOT routinely sprays roads with salt brine, a solution that is 23 percent salt.

    ?We look at the forecast and if it?s going to freeze that night, we?ll spray the roads and bridges with brine,? said Keltner. ?Brine works very well when it?s just below freezing. When you get down to 5 degrees, then it doesn?t work so well.?

For the full story, see the Oct. 26 edition of The Washington Evening Journal