From Monday night until noon on Tuesday, approximately $73,800 worth of salt was put on the streets in Nashville from TDOT’s main salt barn.
Kathryn Schulte, the Community Relations Officer for the Tennessee Department of Transportation said they used about 1,000 tons and have been buying it at $73.80/ton.
Schulte said, “It is challenging for us because it’s not enough accumulation to really be able to use our plows in the Nashville area. We’re really having to rely on getting out there and salting the roads as soon as the stuff comes down.”
During the Tuesday morning commute, TDOT called in secondary crews to help assist with putting down salt on I-40 and other interstates.
Schulte said, “We started salting hotspots and overpasses at about 4'oclock yesterday afternoon. And so we’re coming up on 20 hours of this. Just on and off snow.”
She said the biggest challenge into Wednesday morning will be the snow bursts.
Their plan was to continue to put salt on the roads. “The salt lowers the freezing temperature of water to about 20 and 23 and the road surface usually stays about 3-4 degrees warmer than the air temperature. So unless we really get into the teens, or upper teens, our salt will still be effective,” said Schulte.
Schulte said, “This weather event has been pretty irritating. Because as you know we’re not getting a lot of accumulation but it’s just enough to make the roads slick. But it’s not enough to use our plows for. So we really have just been salting the roads as much as possible to keep everything from freezing.”
Due to the fact that crews have been working so hard during these pop up snow showers, TDOT cancelled a public meeting they were planning on having in Smith County.
