With the snowfall this morning, it’s a prime time to brush up on safe winter driving techniques.
Marc Holsen the Manitowoc County Highway Commissioner, spoke with SeehaferNews.com recently and ironically he said they had to cancel last Thursday’s classroom training portion of their Winter Rodeo, because of the weather. As for the hands-on section of the rodeo, it did go on as scheduled Friday at the Highway 310 highway shop. They had five stations set up, to re-introduce the workers on things like salt application, equipment operation, and traffic control flagging.
With 20,000 plus vehicles a day, the interstate system is definitely their priority with snow removal.
Holsen told us that they have”26 trucks, 7 graders in case of a big snow event, and we recently purchased a larger salt brine unit to reduce the refill time.” He has 23 highway employees covering snow routes plus 4, 2nd and 3rd shifts for overnight operations.
The highway commissioner said they have 7-thousand ‘tons’ of salt on hand in their main shed and 4 satellite shops: that’s just under a half-million dollars’ worth of salt.
As a safety reminder for motorists this winter, remember to stay at least 200 feet back of operating snowplows in a 55 mph zone or more, and 75 feet behind plows when the speed limit is 35 or less because those operators can’t always see traffic behind them.
