MIAMI COUNTY — Miami County road crews were out early to work to clear roads for drivers as the winter storm moved through the Miami Valley. Thanks to a recent expansion, they had even more salt ready to prepare roads for the snow to hit.
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County Engineer Paul Huelskamp told News Center 7 that his crews came in at 5 a.m. on Monday to get started on clearing the roads. He had 15 people driving 15 trucks along 15 routes, taking care of every road across the county.
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As shown on our special edition of News Center 7 at 4:00, Huelskamp explained how long it usually takes to get the routes covered.
“Generally, about four hours. We can get around as long as they’re not too snow-covered and everything,” he said. “So it took a little longer this morning for each gut to get around his route.”
Miami County crews were clearing snow all Monday morning and into the afternoon. Huelskamp told News Center 7 that even after the roads are clear, his crews have to go back out to take care of the snow that blew back onto the roadway.
“We’ll go through and then we come back four hours later and it’s drifted back,” he explained. “It’s as deep as it was before, so if the sun would come out for a little while, that would really help.”
Huelskamp’s crews put down about 150 tons of salt in preparation for the weather, and thanks to the Miami County Commissioners and recent salt barn expansion, they have plenty more.
“That holds an additional 1,000 tons of salt that expanded our total material storage from 5,000 to 6,000 tons,” he explained.
The extra material helps them in longer-lasting storms when they aren’t able to get new salt in.
“It’s like basically having another 10 gallons of fuel in your car,” Huelskamp said.
But it’s not just salt, as Huelskamp explained. He said they mix in gravel-sized pieces of limestone with the salt as it’s put on the roads.
“That helps when it gets too cold for the salt to work. The grit acts as a grabbing, you know, interface between the tires and the slick pavement,” he said.
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