Highway maintenance - Winter operations & extreme events

2023

WSDOT winter operations prepare proactively and reactively

In combination with the agency's snow and ice plans, WSDOT uses advanced weather forecasting tools to form predictions of where snow and ice may accumulate. WSDOT's response to snow and ice can be both reactive and proactive using treatment of roadways with corrosion inhibited chemical deicers and mechanical removal. Outcomes of snow and ice control treatments vary, depending on the severity of winter weather events, topography, traffic levels and speeds, and proximity to support facilities (i.e. liquid chemical storage tanks and salt stockpiles).

Proactively, chemical deicers are used in anti-icing applications help prevent snow and ice bonding to the roadway. When used reactively in response to accumulating snow or ice on the roadway, chemical deicers help melt snow and ice in conjunction with plowing. WSDOT's goal is to return roadways to bare and wet conditions during and after inclement weather. On high priority roadways, operations continue until bare pavement is achieved. On other roadways, the goal is to return pavement to bare and wet condition as soon as practical.

Farming ingenuity leads to new innovations

Innovation happens every day at WSDOT. Employees find solutions to ordinary problems they encounter to save time, resources and be more efficient in accomplishing a task. WSDOT's Innovation Challenge is an opportunity for maintenance employees to participate in and share their solutions with others across the state. Since 2018, the challenge has shared many innovations that make day-to-day tasks easier, faster and safer.

Widespread damage to snowblower heads across the state contributed to the closure of several mountain passes, affecting travel for thousands of people. Ernie Sims, WSDOT's statewide fleet administrator, is also a wheat farmer in Reardon. Sims put on his farming hat and brainstormed possible solutions to the problem. He worked with manufacturer Larue to develop a snowblower head that WSDOT could easily change out with minimal downtime when damaged. As a result, new snowblowers are being delivered nationwide that have quick disconnect heads that can be changed out in a matter of hours instead of weeks (if not the rest of the winter season) to fix.

2022

WSDOT looks to shore up shortages and gaps

WSDOT faces the challenge to deliver a resilient and resourceful maintenance program that has become exacerbated by the national and global supply chain shortages and material gaps for many commodities.

These shortages and gaps make it difficult for the Transportation Equipment Fund program (TEF) to locate repair parts, tools, shop equipment, vehicles, and heavy equipment. The program has been innovative to meet the fleet's needs and every effort is being made to keep the fleet operational and replace equipment innovatively. New equipment brands are being introduced into the TEF fleet and contracts have been made with a more diverse vendor base. In the end, the solutions enacted by WSDOT to overcome the global supply chain issues have led to a more resilient TEF fleet.

2021

Tow plows tackle double duties

WSDOT's Eastern Region is home to the agency's three tow plows. These plows are designed to be towed and extended out at an angle behind a plow truck to clear a secondary lane at the same time. Tow plows, when angled, have a 14-foot clearing path.

These plows are also equipped with a granular spreader and liquid tanks to apply deicing materials. The combination of the tow plow with the materials application allows a single truck to perform the work of two trucks, clearing two lanes at once. Tow plows not only clear the roadway faster, but also reduce the cost of the operations.

The three tow plows in Eastern Region have nicknames as part of a public engagement campaign. This light-hearted campaign has yielded serious results—including increased public engagement about WSDOT's plowing work and extending the reach of plow safety messaging to a broader audience.

The plows are named:

• Plowie McPlow Plow
• The Big Leplowski
• Sir Plows-a-Lot

Naming each tow plow has become a tradition of sorts, with the agency allowing the public to submit suggestions each time a new tow plow is added. Staff then narrow it down to a smaller list before putting the name up to a vote on social media.

WSDOT faces ongoing struggle to meet maintenance staffing needs

WSDOT is working to rebound from a hiring freeze that accompanied Initiative 976 as well as continued retirements, recruitment/retention struggles and COVID-19 restrictions that furthered staffing shortages while increasing training time for new employees.

Pandemic-related revenue decreases that left WSDOT unable to hire in 2020 continued into July 2021. Recruitment efforts increased at that time but were affected by the mandatory vaccine requirement for state employees, which resulted in the loss of trained personnel both in Maintenance and the Transportation Equipment Fund (motor pool and mechanics).

WSDOT continues to recruit for vacancies created by various factors, including an aging workforce and several pandemic-related circumstances including: furloughs, hiring freezes, temporary instead of permanent hires, vaccine mandates, and increased competition for workers with diesel mechanic qualifications or commercial driver licenses (CDL).

The CDL issue, is partly due to a pandemic-related spike in the demand for CDL truck drivers, which affected all states in 2021. As a result, WSDOT aligned workload expectations with available staffing levels. While it shifted resources wherever possible, it also could not push its crews beyond safe workloads.

Staffing levels affect WSDOT's statewide winter operations

With the pandemic affecting winter operations for the second year in a row, WSDOT's winter operations staff was down 19.5% from approximately 1,500 to roughly 1,200. Maintenance was already down 142 positions as of October 1, 2021.

After the October 18, 2021 vaccination mandate, another 151 staff in those positions resigned or retired from the agency, leaving a total of 293 winter operations positions unfilled—more than four times what it was the year prior.

Maintenance responds to extreme events statewide

WSDOT's planned maintenance activities come to a halt when an emergency or disaster occurs because crews must first respond to potential hazards that threaten Washington's transportation infrastructure. These types of emergency responses divert maintenance crews from scheduled work as they must assist with road closures and traffic control and, in some cases, begin initial repairs. These unfunded emergencies exacerbate the maintenance backlog because they take personnel away from planned activities.

The summer of 2021 marked a historic heat wave that affected the state's infrastructure and roads, causing pavement damage across the state. During the late-June and early-July heat wave, regions across the state experienced multiple days at well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit which resulted in buckling and peeling pavement. WSDOT crews responded to 26 extreme heat-related issues across the state.

Landslides, washouts, and cleanup due to heavy rains and previous fire damage also affected Washington's roadways in 2021, including long-term closures in some locations. In total, WSDOT crews responded to 41 landslides.

US 101 south of Forks landslide due to November storm

A large landslide closed US 101 at milepost 185 near Forks after a storm on November 15, 2021. The slide affected approximately 50 feet of roadway while three smaller embankment failures filled a ditch with debris and trees, clogging a nearby culvert and causing water to spill onto the roadway. Maintenance crews were able to clear downed trees, debris and water, and install a jersey barrier in the center of the roadway to reopen access to Forks. Crews restored one-way, alternating travel near Kallman Road on Wednesday, November 17 after two days of work. An emergency contract is being prepared for a long-term fix of the site. Smaller slides on SR 113 and SR 110 were cleared in the days that followed.

2020

COVID-19 impacts on 2020-21 winter service

While safety remains the agency's top priority during the COVID-19 pandemic, the heightened need to be strategic with both overtime hours and materials may mean that roads and passes are closed more frequently during large storms, and that those closures may last longer.
Tire chains may also be required more often as reduced crews may be able to keep roads open but not completely clear of snow or ice. Lower priority roads might also go untreated for longer periods of time while available crews focus on high priority, more heavily traveled routes. For the safety of crews and travelers, roads that cannot be maintained will be closed until the weather situation resolved.

2019

WSDOT Maintenance rises to the challenge to help state through historic 2019 winter

Snowstorms in February and March 2019 produced several daily and month-long records. WSDOT maintenance crews were on non-stop, 12-hour shifts for extended periods in efforts to keep people and goods moving safely. Dangerous, drifting snow in central and eastern Washington continued into March, swamping vehicles and forcing road closures. Some roads faced issues with drifting snow almost as soon as they were plowed.

Western Washington experienced below-normal temperatures and repeated snowfall in elevations above 500 feet, resulting in increased costs as WSDOT crews dealt with snow and ice. Eastern Washington had extremely low temperatures well into March and repeated snowstorms coupled with high winds. Adverse weather resulted in numerous road closures, in addition to much higher snow and ice removal costs than anticipated.

Notable statistics from the 2019 winter include:

• Statewide average temperatures for February were 9.6 degrees colder than normal
• Seattle experienced its largest February snowfall in 70 years (20.2 inches compared to the typical snowfall of 1.7 inches)
• Snoqualmie Pass set a 10-year record for snowfall in 24 hours (31.5 inches), and had 68 inches in 72 hours.
• Spokane experienced its second snowiest February on record (30 inches compared to the typical snowfall of 6.8 inches)