A view from DOT snowplow on Iowa Highway 10 Monday.
The weather this winter in Iowa has been all over the place, with the latest swing dumping several inches of snow along the western edge of the state.
There have been plenty of warm days too, and that’s left the Iowa Department of Transportation in a good position in this last full week of January. “As far as on hand materials go — yes we are sitting really well — I’d say we are probably somewhere at 70 percent of our capacity,” according to DOT Winter Operations Administrator Craig Bargfrede.
The DOT typically uses some 200,000 tons of rock salt on the roadways during the winter, and there’s still plenty stockpiled. “We still have somewhere in the neighborhood of about 150 to 160,000 tons of salt on hand on the ground here yet,” Bargfrede says.
DOT crews are expected to get help from Mother Nature again in clearing the roads as temperatures are predicted to continue to warm up throughout the rest of the week with highs reaching into the low 50s in parts of the state.