WSDOT is prepared for winter. Are you and your tires ready?
Oct 29, 2024, 6:07 AM
Hundreds of trucks line up for tire chain control on Highway I-80. (Photo: Tayfun Coskun, Getty Images)
(Photo: Tayfun Coskun, Getty Images)
The state said it’s ready for the snow and ice. Now, it’s up to all of us to do the same with our cars and tires as winter weather approaches.
Snowflakes are falling in the Cascades, and that means the first road closure can’t be too far away. All the storage sheds are full and the hundreds of plows, trucks and other rigs are ready to roll.
“Our equipment mechanics have been servicing hundreds of snow plows and rigs across the state, and we’ve also been doing some seasonal hiring for people with a commercial driver’s license to help our efforts,” Tina Werner, media relations specialist with the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), said.
And for the first time since the pandemic, WSDOT is fully staffed for winter operations.
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“Once again, we are around 1,600 employees that are directly involved in snow and ice response for the state, and that is more of our pre-pandemic type numbers that we are seeing,” Werner said.
You might remember the state fired several hundred maintenance workers in 2021 after they refused to take the COVID-19 shot. It’s taken three years to get back to these numbers, and WSDOT is still looking for season workers with those commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs).
But WSDOT can only do so much. It’s up to all of us drivers to do the rest. Werner said most of the pass closures can be blamed on us.
“Many of our road closures and mountain pass closures, for example, are a result of people that are traveling unprepared,” Werner said. “That can look like people driving too fast for conditions or failing to chain up and follow chain up requirements by the Washington State Patrol.”
Failing to chain up can cost you $500. It can also cause the roads to close if you lose traction and spin out. Big rigs are required to carry chains, starting Friday. Studded tires are once again legal, starting on Friday.
WSDOT is recommending that drivers consider alternatives to studded tires.
“We do encourage stud-free winter tread traction tires,” Werner said. “It’s a much more aggressive tread, and it is different from what you would see in an all-season tire. They’re legal year-round, and they don’t cause the amount of damage to our roadway as what we see with studded tires.”
The state estimated that studded tires cause between $20-29 million in damage to the roads every year.
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Now is the time to think about new tires and to practice putting on chains.
“Practice putting on chains now, maybe at home or in your driveway, as opposed to the very first winter storm when you’re maybe stuck on White Pass and you are not really sure how to do that,” Werner said.
It’s also time to put a winter emergency kit in your cars. Some water. Some snacks. A blanket or two. Maybe a small shovel.
A reminder to my all-wheel drive owners out there — and I’m including myself in this — please don’t over-estimate your driving ability or over-estimate your vehicle’s ability.
As State Trooper Rick Johnson told me years ago, “ice doesn’t care if you have 42-wheel drive.”
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