MnDOT preparing for winter weather

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - For many a Tuesday filled with rain is just a dreary day, but for MnDOT it makes their job significantly more difficult.

With the first winter weather event of the year coming up, MnDOT would typically be using the hours before to pre-treat the roads to make freezing more difficult, but a day full of rain means that not only is that not possible, as the treatment would only get washed away, but that rain will likely freeze overnight, meaning there’s much more to worry about than just snow.

“We going to have some rain coming down beforehand and then the temperatures are going to drop, and that’s not going to drop consistently everywhere, so there may be some spots that are wet with some other adjacent spots getting frozen quicker, so you want to slow down, make sure you know where you’re going‚" said MnDOT’s Scott Morgan.

The local MnDOT district has a fleet of 83 plow trucks and 166 drivers that will be running throughout the night.

It’s something that is trained for all year long, but crew leaders said that nothing compares to the first time sending the trucks and drivers out and finally putting it all to the test.

“You’ve got a combination of equipment getting back out again and things will break that you thought were all 100-percent ready to go but things break, and we’ve also got drivers who aren’t used to it again, it’s been a while and we have new drivers every year growing up and it kind of takes a couple snows before they kind of get their snow feet under them again,” explained Morgan.

As always, MnDOT encourages drivers to check 511mndotorg for the most up to date information on road conditions.

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