Winter Storm Put ARDOT Resources to the Test

(Shutterstock)

The winter storm of Jan. 23-24 put almost the entire state of Arkansas on hiatus, except, of course, those employees of the Arkansas Department of Transportation who spent their days and nights trying to keep the highways clear of snow and ice.

ARDOT Director Jared Wiley said the storm not only stressed his workforce, but it also stressed the department’s supply of road treatment, mainly salt. ARDOT said it pretreated 32,000 miles of roads before the storm and plowed 38,000 miles after the first snowflake fell.

ARDOT used about 40,000 tons of salt on roads during the storm. It also went through 2.5 million gallons of salt brine, 50,000 gallons of beet juice, more than 2,000 50-pound bags of calcium chloride (a salt-based de-icer) and 387,000 gallons of diesel and gasoline.

“We try to keep enough salt on hand to fight about roughly two three-day events, and this storm really put us to the test,” Wiley said.