MONTGOMERY COUNTY -- Evan Robinson is one of about one-hundred salt truck drivers who will be logging more overtime battling the elements. He began his shift Sunday night at 9 p.m. and will take a little break before doing it all over again.
"The good thing about it is the roads were kind of clear so we had a good chance to jump on it and get a good layer of salt down."
And he and his fellow salt truck drivers are all set to get a good head start again. They are preparing for the re-freeze Monday night. "If it does start dropping we hit with some more salt and put some beet juice down to get it to thaw out a little bit."
Robinson has done this routine hundreds of times before. He will layer the brine, a salt, beet juice mixture used to DE-ice hoping to keep the ice to a minimum, all crews are conserving as much as possible because of a national salt shortage.
"We are mainly hitting hills, intersections and bridges initially to make sure those are cleared up so people won't slide through the intersections and slide down the hills."
He said there are a few things motorists can do to help them out first stay back. "We try to get them at least 50 to 100 feet back because its hard to see the salt come out the spinner when the headlights are right behind you we need to see if the salt is coming out if its spreading across the road like its suppose to."
Robinson said there is another real important reason to give the salt trucks extra room. "When people ride real close it becomes an issue because we can see and we may have to stop for some reason and we don't want them running into the back of the truck."
ODOT officials are also say if conditions are bad stay home unless you absolutely have to go out because if there is less traffic they can lay salt and chemicals a little easier which could ultimately mean better road conditions.
"The good thing about it is the roads were kind of clear so we had a good chance to jump on it and get a good layer of salt down."
And he and his fellow salt truck drivers are all set to get a good head start again. They are preparing for the re-freeze Monday night. "If it does start dropping we hit with some more salt and put some beet juice down to get it to thaw out a little bit."
Robinson has done this routine hundreds of times before. He will layer the brine, a salt, beet juice mixture used to DE-ice hoping to keep the ice to a minimum, all crews are conserving as much as possible because of a national salt shortage.
"We are mainly hitting hills, intersections and bridges initially to make sure those are cleared up so people won't slide through the intersections and slide down the hills."
He said there are a few things motorists can do to help them out first stay back. "We try to get them at least 50 to 100 feet back because its hard to see the salt come out the spinner when the headlights are right behind you we need to see if the salt is coming out if its spreading across the road like its suppose to."
Robinson said there is another real important reason to give the salt trucks extra room. "When people ride real close it becomes an issue because we can see and we may have to stop for some reason and we don't want them running into the back of the truck."
ODOT officials are also say if conditions are bad stay home unless you absolutely have to go out because if there is less traffic they can lay salt and chemicals a little easier which could ultimately mean better road conditions.