Salt inventory low for county crews after exceptionally snowy winter
So far, it’s been an exceptionally snowy winter in Nebraska.
In Lincoln, more than 30 inches of snowfall has already been recorded, which has put an added strain on city and county crews that treat roads.
“Right now, we are probably at about a quarter of our total stockpile left. We actually have our vendor bringing us more this weekend,” said Ron Bohaty, Road Maintenance Superintendent with Lancaster County.
Bohaty says thanks to emergency funds on the yearly budget, the current salt shortage was able to be paid for.
For the city of Lincoln, it’s also used up about three quarters of it’s salt supply.
The city receives regular salt shipments.
As far the snow budget for Lincoln. City officials say they’ve used up about half of it. Which they say at February 15th, means the city is in pretty good shape.
The county crews have been utilizing a new combination of product on snow fallen roads.
“Previously, it’s been a mixture of about 50% sand and 50% salt, this year we’ve gone to a four to one mixture. So it has more salt content, that allows us to travel more miles before we have to go back and load up again,” said Bohaty.
Bohaty says that snow storms like the one on Friday take time to clear.
18 full-sized snow plow trucks were out clearing roads throughout the day.
After the snow is cleared off of roads, the salt and sand can be applied.
Bohaty says the worst type of weather to deal with is ice.
“Ice takes much more material than snow to melt off. We have probably used more volume of our material for that this year than we have in the past several years,” said Bohaty.
The county has four salt domes they keep product in.
Each one, when at full size, contains more than 550 tons of salt.
12 semi trucks full of salt will be delivered on Monday.
Bohaty believes it will be enough to get the area through the winter.
Looking forward, to next winter, Bohaty says the county is expecting four new trucks that will increase productivity and efficiency.
