KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — As a winter storm brought several inches of snow and froze roads, crews at the Knox County Engineering and Public Works Department were working to keep the county safe.
The winter storm made traveling impossible for many people in the area, sealing them inside for around a week starting Jan. 15. It started when a storm dumped more than a season's worth of snow across the Knoxville area and was followed up later in the week by a bout of freezing rain that made driving conditions even more dangerous.
Jim Snowden, the director of the department, said throughout all the inclement weather there were 90 workers trying to plow roads and keep them from totally freezing over. They drove 24 trucks to get around Knox County and used around 4,000 tons of salt to treat the roads, according to Snowden.
In total, he said those 90 people worked around 6,000 man-hours.
The county was still calculating the total cost of responding to the winter storm on Thursday, and was also working to calculate the total number of miles workers drove to treat roads.
In Knoxville, crews were also putting in work. First responders and snow crews worked 24 hours a day for more than a week. There were 24 trucks equipped to salt and clear the streets, and they traveled 17,015 miles. Eric Vreeland, the Deputy Director of Communications for Knoxville, said this was confirmed by mileage counters and GPS locators on fleet vehicles.
To put this into perspective, there are about 500 lane miles of Level 1 and Level 2 streets in the city. These are the ones that lead to hospitals and bridges and are high-traffic. They're treated more than once, especially with last week's weather.
Around $366,000 worth of salt, which is equal to 3,000 tons of salt, was spread by city crews.
The city is still calculating the total costs associated with responding to the storm, which includes Public Service labor, equipment and materials. The estimate as of Jan. 23 was $624,340, but the numbers are expected to increase.
The final numbers on city staff hours and the material costs will not be available for weeks.
Across the state, Tennessee Department of Transportation crews also worked around the clock with a total of 105,500 staff hours. Crews worked around the clock driving 892 vehicles and around 884,200 miles. In order to clear the roads, 88,500 tons of salt and 1,500,000 tons of brine were used. TDOT crews managed 1,902 incidents and helped motorists. These numbers are expected to increase slightly after the final count.
In Region 1, which covers 24 East Tennessee counties, TDOT crews used 179 dump trucks, five graders, six road tractors, 16 HELP trucks, and two wreckers. Mark Nagi, the Community Relations Officer of this region, shared that the vehicles drove around 222,774 miles and Region 1 crews worked around 28,350.6 man-hours.
He also said crews used 25,401.6 tons of salt and 334,004 gallons of brine. The total cost to respond to the storm for TDOT in Region 1 was $5,183,491.