Photo:  MN DOT

By Krystal Fraiser from KBJR-TV - August 8, 2019

A new MnDOT winter maintenance report released Wednesday shows the state spent nearly $133 million to clear roads during the 2018-2019 winter season.

In the report, MnDOT breaks down costs for the fiscal year, as well as winter severity, as well as snow totals.

The report breaks down statistics for each of the eight transportation districts throughout the state.

One of the items highlighted was the amount of overtime recorded, with more than 198,000 hours of overtime reported during the 2018-2019 winter, which exceeded the bare lane target goals for all road classifications within 36 hours after a snow event.

In addition, MnDOT says they used less road salt and sand during the past winter compared to the previous winter, and applied more liquid chemicals, such as BEET HEET, Apex-C and RG8.

Officials say the chemicals helped the salt perform quicker, which led to routes being cleared faster, and with less material.

MnDOT says this is the most money the state has spent since 2013-2014.

Some of the statewide stats included in the report for the past winter include the following:

• Salt used: 246,505 tons
• Average cost of salt/ton: $68.95
• Salt brine used: 4.6 million gallons
• Sand used: 35,948 tons
• Regular labor hours: 620,218
• Overtime winter labor hours: 198,107

District One, which covers all of northeast Minnesota, received a district average of 109.0 inches, with the most snowfall recorded at Grand Marais with 124.3 inches.

District snowfall levels were determined by averaging measurements from four locations within the district as recorded by the Maintenance Decision Support System.

You can read the full report in the attached PDF.

To see video version of this report, follow this link to the KBJR-TV website.  https://kbjr6.com/news/iron-range/2019/08/07/167011/