DOT readies supplies, trucks for winter's snow
While most North Carolinians are preparing this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, the state Department of Transportation is preparing for winter storms.
As fall turns to winter, truck drivers test their salt spreaders and hitch up the plows to be ready well before the first flake flies.
"The week of Thanksgiving is always our snow prep dry runs," said Jason Dunigan, a maintenance engineer for Wake County. "We need to make sure equipment is working properly and the guys know about their routes."
By the numbers DOT in Wake County
7,000: Miles of roadway lanes maintained
6,000: Tons of salt
600 to 800: Tons of salt-sand mixture
50,000: Gallons of brine
89: DOT trucks
Dunigan explained how those trucks are deployed first to major routes and then to secondary roads.
"When we're out there, strategic corridors are first," he said. "If we don't have interstates or primary routes cleared, then where are these people in the neighborhoods gonna go when they leave?"
DOT driver Tommy George says drivers shouldn't be so anxious to get out after a snowstorm.
"When the governor says it's a state of emergency, to stay home, that's where you need to stay until the DOT and everybody gets these roads clean," he said.
The hours are long, the roads are lousy, but the drivers dig it.
"It's something different," Dunigan said. "It's different than pothole patching. It's different from the drainage complaints. I have a blast with this."
Driver Anthony Woods said of the mix of fun, work, salt and sand, "To me, it's fun, it's fun, it's fun."
