MDOT plows slowing down this winter
Posted: Nov 29, 2011 10:13 PM EDT | Updated: Nov 6, 2014 1:42 PM EDT
NILES, Mich. - If you drive Michigan’s state roads, be prepared for slower plows this winter!
MDOT announced Tuesday that the maximum speed a salt truck can drive is being lowered.
Tuesday is day one of a long winter for Terry Stineback, a 20-year veteran driver of an MDOT snowplow. He isn’t too excited about the change in seasons. “I don’t think anyone really looks forward to it and when it gets here you just go and do your job,” he said from the MDOT Niles Garage.
If Stineback’s days in the winter didn’t go slow enough already they’re going to be slower this winter. “This year we have reduced our speed,” said Lisa Marsh-McCarty, MDOT’s supervisor for the Southwest region of the state.
MDOT is reducing the speed of salt trucks from a maximum of 45 mph down to just 25 mph. Marsh-McCarty said it’s all about the money. “The slower speeds you can put the salt where it’s needed then you don’t get that bounce and scatter you get with higher speeds,” she said.
MDOT estimates a slower speed will reduce the amount of salt they use by 30-percent and save $100 thousand annually in the region.
Stineback hopes people catch on to the difference. “I think some cars will be impatient and others will have the patience to do our jobs,” he said. You’ll be catching up to his plow on the road a whole lot faster this year.