ODOT Stakeholder Update: January Storm Response

Oregon Department of Transportation sent this bulletin at 01/30/2012 10:18 AM PST
ODOT
Collapsed highway

Mother Nature dishes it out—and ODOT responds

Over the past few weeks Mother Nature has done its best to wallop Oregon’s highways, dumping 9 inches of rain on some parts of the state and sending hurricane-force winds hurling at the coast.  But the dedicated men and women of ODOT—particularly maintenance crews around the state—have responded quickly to open up highways and protect the safety of the traveling public.  On January 18th alone ODOT maintenance workers responded to nearly 250 events.

ODOT has battled snow in the Cascades and east of the mountains and high water on highways throughout the Willamette Valley, and maintenance crews cleaned up landslides, rockfalls and collapsing highways on routes leading to the coast and US 101. Hundreds of trees fell on highways, and avalanches closed US 20, trapping a tanker truck.  Numerous sections of highway—including I-84 through the Columbia Gorge, US 101 near Newport, and OR 38 near Reedsport—had one or more lanes closed. For more information, visit ODOT’s website.

By the Numbers

Over the last few weeks, ODOT workers have:
Clearing OR 34
  • Put in 18,056 hours of overtime—the equivalent of 9 people working for a year

 Snowplows
  • Used 556,916 gallons of deicer, enough to deice all 8300 lane miles of I-5 from Canada to Mexico—twice
 Be prepared
  • Used 33,639 cubic yards of sanding material—enough to fill a football field almost 19 feet deep