Counties Replenish Salt Supply After Weekend Snow, Icy Conditions
CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- County trucks from all over the area were plowing and spreading a lot of salt on roads between last Thursday afternoon and early Monday, in some cases. Now, they need to replenish their salt supplies. WBBM's Bernie Tafoya reports.
Beth Skowronski of the McHenry County Department of Transportation said she was expecting more salt to be delivered Monday. She had 25 trucks covering 580 lane miles over the weekend.
"This weekend we used a lot of salt. Our average for a year is about 9,000 tons, and this year, we've already used seven," she said.
Skowronski said a lot of the salt was used on icy roads and bridges earlier in the season.
Kevin Kerrigan of the Lake County DOT tells a similar usage story, using about 2,000 tons of salt through the weekend.
"We probably have between 3,000 and 3,500 tons on hand right now. We have salt deliveries starting today to replenish our salt domes," Kerrigan said.
John Yonan, the superintendent of the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways said his crews dropped about 3,800 tons of salt over 570 lane miles through Sunday night.
"We knew we had enough, but we, today, are re-stocking our silos in our districts and we've never concerned about whether we were going to have enough or not," Yonan said.
Christopher Snyder of the DuPage County DOT said more salt is on order.
"For this event alone, we used about 4,400 tons of salt. Year to date, we used just over 19,000," Snyder said. "Which is more than usual."
Snyder said 17,500 tons of salt is normally used, but that this season the county has already used 19,000 tons.
After working 12 hour shifts, 16 hours shifts in Cook County's case, you can bet many of those truck drivers are tired.
Yonan says they are, but that, "we definitely have some good forecasts here for the next week so, I think they got plenty of time to rest up."