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Florida (Yes, Florida) DOT Purchases Snow Plows, Salt, Spreaders
March 19, 2014
The Florida Department of Transportation has purchased snow plows, salt and spreaders for use in Northwest Florida. The purchases come on the heels of a freak ice storm in January that paralyzed the area.
The DOT spent $22,000 for five snow plows that will attach to the front of current DOT vehicles, $12,400 for 42 tons of salt, $26,400 for 10 salt spreaders to attach to dump trucks and $26,400 for 4,400 gallons of the ice-melting chemical potassium acetate.
The equipment can be used in mutual aid effort in other areas, and the snow plows can be used to remove beach sand from the roads after strong storms and hurricanes.
Pictured above: One of FDOT’s snow plows. Pictured inset: Two jack-knifed 18-wheelers on an icy Highway 29 south of Century and (below) an impassable Highway 97 near Davisville last January. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
25 Responses to “Florida (Yes, Florida) DOT Purchases Snow Plows, Salt, Spreaders”
Maybe a better idea would be to live in the Northeast for one winter and learn how to drive.
Remember the impending Ice Age, freezing in summertime, predicted by “experts” in 1970, soon to be replaced by warming warnings then by climate change ? The Ice Age theory actually hit the covers of Time and News “weak” magazines. You can believe it if they say it, can’t you. That was about three years before they somberly claimed in 1973 that the world was running out of oil – rusting cars with empty gas tanks littering the roadway. Maybe they have now reverted to the Ice Age theory. Stay tuned for the next round of nonsense from the all-knowing in-crowd. No one seems to discuss how often they are wrong; only reporting the next “crisis.”
MAYBE THEY CAN USE THEM ON COMPLETING THE NEW ROAD TO BARRINEAU PARK BRIDGE
If FDOT would have called it a “sand plow” instead of “snow plow” they woulda got better reviews lol
The Head of FDOT is the Secretary of Transportation who is appointed by the Governor. The Secretary of Transportation reports to the Governor, which is………> RICK SCOTT!!!
Voice your opinion at election time.
I think it is much needed. My husband works on these roads in the freezing conditions to keep it safe. This is much needed instead of having to make due with equipment that is not meant for this purpose. Tell me how you can be against it when you are at home with your children and watching on the news seeing cars wrecking, people dying, and you know you spouse is out there in the middle of it trying to keep people safe!
What a major waste of my money! That could have been used to provide free phones and food stamp for the, ah…………………… needy. Yeh, that’s its; the needy!!!
Sorry Gembeaux , but I have lived in NW Florida for over 20 years and NEVER has there been any use whatsoever for a snowplow. In 1991 we had 1/2″ on Pensacola Beach, but melted in a couple hours. True… this latest is the worst in recorded history. But, as Chuck points out snowploughs work best with at least 2″ of ACCUMULATED snow. I have lived in NJ, Oregon, Kansas, Northern Missouri, and can attest to validity of Chuck’s statement. NO REASON to spend that monehy.
Especially with Global Warming in full force, Florida politicians who supported this should pay for it out of their own pockets.
Let’s institute that policy. When politicians out of ignorance (they are paid to educate themselves and to NOT be ignorant) and total arrogance (giddy with power) waste your and my money, let them pay for it. That would restore responsibility.
I’d like to get one of those mounted the front of my car. It’ll make the morning commute a little faster.
Surely the state will have the insight to put one in Key West..
If your going to buy a truck mounted plow in Florida, or anywhere south of TN, by belly blades. Then you have the ability to push down on the blade with the weight of the truck. Which can scrap the ice off and is still good even if you have six inches of snow.
Front mount blades have no down pressure.
PLUS the belly blade can be used as a small grader blade to groom dirt roads year round.
Maybe they could not find any belly blades at any price and were stuck with what was available. Because those in the biz know enough to buy belly blades as a first choice.
Government at its finest! Waste of money.
I think Alabama needs to do the same.
I wish who ever authorize this purchase would put his or her name down so we know who to blame for waste of tax payers money. Such a knee jerk reaction and typical govment thinking
I doubt it will ever be used for the purpose it was bought for. At lease I hope not. The ice storm was awful.
We will NEVER have enough snow to push with snow plow. We need to have some attachments for spreading salt and/or a liquid spreader system to melt ice on bridges specificity since that happens some years. The plow was a stupid mistake. We could have bought more other equipment if they were determined to waste money on this.
What idiot bought salt now! IF you buy bags of salt do it at the end of the year. It will not be cost effective to store bag salt for years. With the humidity here they will have to store it in a nearly humidity free room and keep it that way just to keep it usable.
It would have been better if they got advice from those who have experience instead of those who were selling the equipment and salt.
Really?
IT’S CLIMATE CHANGE…..NOT GLOBAL WARMING, that didn’t work for AL G.
With the price of a piece of equipment like that, and the maintenance, for a once-in-a-lifetime use, I would think that it would be more cost-efficient to just sub-contract the work to a person (or state) that uses that equipment more often. Yeah, we might pay a premium rate for the one-time use of somebody else’s equipment; but it would be less (probably much less) expensive to do so.
In my humble opinion, all we need are some salt trucks….and pick-up trucks could be used with local subcontractors raking back in the money they already paid into the economy in tax revenue….and fifty pick-up trucks can do a lot more work, covering a much larger area, than 1 plow truck….and at a less overall price tag.
Good decision! Better to have and not need than need and not have!
(BTW, @oversight, there has been a need for these several times over the last few winters, particularly across the northern extremes of our panhandle counties. Those involved in accidents due to ice would differ with you.)
Comforting to know of dual uses as the snow plow attachments can be used to push aside sand as well as snow but doubt that it would really push much ice.
No mention here of where the salt and potassium acetate would be stored, or how they would be contained. Will the supply of them be divided among the “areas”? If so, would there be enough of either material in a single location to do much good?
At least the potassium acetate is generally harmless to the environment and is even used in some medical applications.
Who will decide which areas, roads, etc. are selected to be snow plowed or de-iced? Surely seems this 42 tons of salt and 4,400 gallons of ice-melting chemical is not enough for a very long stretch of any roadway. That’s especially true if the supplies are divided into “areas”.
Guess now when my friends up Nawth ask what we do about the huge amounts of snow and ice that accumulate every 20 or 25 years I can answer, “Hey, we have snow plows and de-icing equipment”.
Honestly, I prefer what the good thinkers advise is the best practice, Stay Home.
Pretty morning starting up so am confident we do not need to worry about snow here today.
Waist of money – would only be used once every 30 years if that.
Having lived in Ohio for 40 years, I can say that the plows will serve no use for any type of winter weather down here. You need to have 2 or 3 inches of snow on the ground before a plow can be used (good thing they are multi-use). The only thing that the plows will push will be sand. I am all for the liquid and salt spreaders, they will come in handy one day. Wait a minute, what am I saying, global warming is here this was the last winter event Florida will ever see. LOL
Florida buying snowplows? Sounds like a great investment considering how global warming progressed this past winter.
“When Florida freezes over”
Right?
Great purchase!