The Washington State Department of Transportation sent out their Eastern Region update for October yesterday, which talked about their main focus right now; preparation for winter.
WSDOT crews are responsible for snow and ice control on about 1,700 miles of state highways in seven counties. They’re preparing for this by equipping the 21 single-axle trucks and 48 dual-axle trucks in their sanding/deicing fleet with plows.
56 of the trucks have their dump boxes removed and sanding boxes installed. Each sanding box is capable of pre-wetting solid materials such as sand or salt to help the material adhere to the pavement. 14 additional trucks are equipped with liquid deicer tanks.
The region has 39 front end loaders used to load solid deicing material and sand into the trucks. Finally, WSDOT has three large snow blowers in the Region, which are used to clear roads that are drifted shut.
Region crews will transition to winter shift hours, beginning in mid-November, to provide seven-day per week coverage with day and night shift schedules.