VDOT ready for winter weather

ROANOKE (WSLS) - Winter weather means VDOT crews are busy working to clear the roads of ice and snow.

Last winter proved weather patterns don't pay attention to the calendar with snow on the ground in various parts of the state from late October into early April.

VDOT's snow removal budget for this year is more than $140 million.

They say employees train all year. They ask you to slow down and give equipment operators plenty of room to do their job on the road.

Here's what's in stock this year:

•     366,678 tons of salt
•     122,766 tons of sand
•     1.1 million gallons of salt brine

New this year recycling runoff into brine. That's a solution of salt and water. In the past few years VDOT has relied more and more on applying brine to roads before winter storms. 

It helps prevent frozen precipitation from bonding to the pavement and it's more environmentally friendly than salt. The project was piloted in Richmond and now they are looking to add the recycling to more locations. More than 20 million gallons of runoff could be reused around Virginia.