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Show r g , ,...,. ' l i' :,:;i oi.- i 1 L - f-; w6 ... . u ' i ..j i ' f .F i ' .. V S-IS' Thi I .... JUI ma the 1 wt UDOT Maintenance workers install equalizer frame to convert truck for snowplow use Tti boi conversion enables the trucks to be used year around. UDOT Yfmter Motto Is to Prepare Early 3 Winter begins in August for the Utah Department of Transportation at least the preparation for winter does. While late summer temperatures temp-eratures are still in the 90's, the department is purchasing and stockpiling the sand and salt which will be used on the state's highways during the upcoming winter. Long before the snow begins to fly, workers in each of the Department's maintenance stations are busy equipping their vehicles with snow tires and antifreeze and attachine equalizer frames to trucks. The frames utilize a cantelever principle to more evenly distribute the weight of a heavy steel snow plow so that it isn't all on the front axle. The snow plow blade and the sander are not attached until the first snow storm, because they bolt on quickly and easily and the trucks are needed to haul litter, gravel and other materials. With the snowplow conversion, the UDOT is able to get full use of its truck fleet throughout the year and is able to keep its seasonal equipment to a minimum. The UDOT does not utilize seasonal or specialized workers work-ers in its snow removal operations. Every maintenance mainten-ance worker in the department does many types of jobs. The snowplow driver that motorists see in the winter is the same person they see picking up litter, painting lanes, ..straightening ..straight-ening guardrails and seal coating highways the rest of the year. Snow removal in Utah is a large and costly operation which does nothing to upgrade the state's highways but is all undertaken strictly for the safety and convenience of the Pe motorist. The UDOT has the c responsibility of clearing the thi snow from about 5500 miles o ab highway. To accomplish this lai Herculean task, the Depart- cement ce-ment has 450 muinton -""n.iiuiitc workers, 438 pieces of snow' se removal equipment and s U budget of some four million' St dollars which can be used for in snow removal only. Anything U left over in the budget goes' U back into the Highway Con-1 Yi struction and Maintenance le Fund. I J, The number of snowplows C and the number of maintenance mainten-ance workers the department ti has are about equal, because e: every worker at a maintenance h station is out plowing snow during a storm. These workers y are on call 24-hours a day,! even if that day happens to be g Thanksgiving, Christmas or' fj one of their children's birth-, j days. Each snowplow driver loads his own truck with sand, I 2 because there is no one to a spare for this intermittent 2 task. j ti Utah experiences an aver-1 age of. about 22 major snow1 . storms during a winter. Each '-. storm costs the department f from .$180,000 to $200,000,; which is paid for solely from ( state highway user revenue. No federal funds are provided' ( for highway maintenance. |