This Winter is Setting All Sorts of Records

Not only has the winter of 2013-2014 been much colder than usual the amount of snowfall is way up as well. On average temperatures are about 35% lower and it's snowed about twice as much. As a result MDOT has had to nearly double its use of road salt. The total cost so far is about twice what it was last year and the winter season is not over yet.

To get all of this additional snow clearing and maintenance work done crews have logged nearly 36,000 hours of extra overtime.

MDOT is in charge of about 8% of the state's roads. They are the ones traveled on the most often. Localities handle the rest and they are all using their own individual budgets. Because of the increased cost many are close to running out of money. That's why state lawmakers are considering a proposal that would allow the state to allocate additional funding to help.