Chesterfield County, Va. (NewsradioWRVA.com) - Although it's cold right now, there's no snow in our immediate forecast. Rest assured, it's coming. VDOT Richmond District Maintenance Engineer Tanveer Chowdhury says that they have over 300,000 gallons of brine at their disposal throughout the district, as well as 60,000 tons of salt and 23,000 tons of sand.
Chowdhury says that VDOT spends over 200 million statewide for snow removal items, generally. This year, VDOT is allocating 220 million statewide for snow removal and for the Richmond District, it's 25 million. Chowdhury says that the budget is usually figured out fairly consistently every year, but it's mostly based on what was spent the previous year.
VDOT reminds people that if a storm starts out as rain and ends as snow, they usually can't pre-treat roads. That was the nature of the storm last January that resulted in cars being stranded on 95 for multiple days.
Chowdhury says if they do happen to go over budget this winter with snow removal, it doesn't mean that they will stop treating the roads. They'll just cut the budget from other maintenance activities down the road.
