CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH DAN WEINGARTEN, M-DOT
The Upper Peninsula has seen a slow start to the snowy season this winter, but, rest assured, the snow will be here, eventually.
The Michigan Department of Transportation Superior Region is gearing up for its snow-and-ice removal season, and has services available on-line for drivers when the snow and ice does start to pile up. M-DOT Regional Communications Director Dan Weingarten in Ishpeming says that crews are keeping busy, despite most parts of the 15-county region seeing only scattered amounts of snow and ice so far.
“While we’re waiting for the (big) snow to arrive, our crews are keeping their plows maintained, doing routine service on vehicles, and making sure that we’ve got salt in all of our salt sheds,” Weingarten told RRN News. “We still have our temporary seasonal workers on staff. They can do some other maintenance work while we wait for the snow. Where we really save right now is salt. We spend upwards of $7 million a year on salt. That’s region-wide. That includes salt that we buy and the counties use to plow our roads around the Upper Peninsula. Any time we can cut down on that salt use, that’s good for the state budget.”
Once the poor weather does arrive, Weingarten says there is a lot of information available on-line from both M-DOT and the Michigan State Police at http://www.michigan.gov/winterdriving.
“The biggest thing is to slow down, and to allow six-to-ten car lengths between you and the snow plow in front of you,” Weingarten said. “There’s a bunch of great tips, on everything from how to drive on snow, to how to prepare your car for winter. We just have to slow down when the weather gets bad.”
Also, Weingarten says they have information on the M-DOT “Midrive” website and app at http://www.michigan.gov/drive
“If you want to get an idea of what the roads are like before you head out, we have the interactive MiDrive website,” Weingarten said. “You’ll see any road closures. We also have roadside cameras placed strategically around the U.P. so that you can get an idea of what the temperature is, what kind of precipitation we have, and a view of the roadway, whether it’s snow-covered or not.”
And, he says, there are snow-plow cams, letting you see what the snowplow drivers are seeing as they clear the roads across the Upper Peninsula.
“And, the 38 snowplow vehicles that we have in the Upper Peninsula, are all named,” Weingarten added. “There’s also a vehicle locater, so you can tell where the plow has been. You can also see what the driver is seeing on the roads.”
Here are the names of the Upper Peninsula’s snowplows:
Biboon Ogichidaa
Big Mac
Blizzard T Snowplow
Catch My Drift
Close Shave
Coldfoot
Da Rumbler
Dr. Plow Good
Drift Crusher
Frostbite
Get Into Scrape
Gichigami
Have Snow Will Plow
I Think I Can
Ice Force One
Ice Sleigher
King of the North
Laker Scraper
Mighty Mac
Mighty Yooper
Mr. Sandman
Nick Flurry
Orange Crush
Orange Yooper Storm Trooper
Plow Avenger
Plowdy Duty
Polar Express
Shock and Thaw
Sisu
Snobank Maker
Snomac
Snowba Fett
Sparky McChatter
Superior Snowbuster
UP Winter Force
Whitefish Plowder
Winter Fresh
Yooper Scooper
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