Thankfully, the winter of 2014 appears to be over, allowing road crews to finally breathe a sigh of relief. The snow-prone season has been an expensive one.
In the last six years snow removal has cost Barton County $150,000 on the average, Road and Bridge Director Dale Phillips said. That total includes overtime, salt/sand mix applied to roads, fuel and maintenance required to keep the trucks running.
This winter alone County snow crews applied 2,040 tons of salt/sand mix to the roads.
But, despite the recent spring warming trend, county trucks are still mounted with snow plows. “Last April the county crews battled three separate snow storms in April. The last storm was April 21,” Phillips said.
For the City of Great Bend, the winter was about average, said Public Works Director Don Craig. The city spent around $30-40,000 and used roughly 300-400 tons of sand/salt mixture, numbers that are consistent with years past.
Most of the snow fell during regular city working hours, so removal didn’t require much overtime. However the bulk of the cost came in the wake of two storms that hit the area at other times.
Statewide, the winter was the most costly since 2008 for the Kansas Department of Transportation.
KDOT spent an estimated $22 million on materials, labor and equipment usage to keep state highways clear and open for travel. That amount compares to $23.7 million in 2008. This year’s winter costs break down to $8.50 per registered vehicle.
“I want to thank our crews for their dedication and hard work to keep Kansas roads open in some very difficult conditions. Winter maintenance takes a substantial amount of effort and money, but the cost to the state would be much greater if the crews didn’t maintain the system as well as they did,” said Transportation Secretary Mike King.
This season, KDOT crews worked 550,000 hours, used 591 dump trucks and treated/plowed some 2.7 million lane miles.
KDOT maintenance experts said the broad scope of this year’s storms, along with frigid temperatures, combined to make this an expensive winter season.
The least amount KDOT has spent on winter maintenance in the past seven years was $6.8 million in 2012.
The 2014 figures are estimates. The numbers typically aren’t finalized until the end of the fiscal year on June 30.