To Richard Howell, TDOT Regional Construction Manager

Richard:
 
Thanks for the attempted explanation, however it falls far short of explaining how TDOT has managed to utilize brine six times this winter season (fourth warmest on record) and how it missed the forecast completely on each occasion in Polk/Bradley/Hamilton and surrounding counties.  TDOT obviously didn't listen to the forecasters in Chattanooga or Knoxville in making their decisions because none of them predicted any measurable percipitation or roadway hazards on these occasions.

  TDOT has been a very poor steward of the taxpayers monies in this regard.  There should be severe penalties for whoever is responsible.  In the private sector, whoever was responsible for missing it six times would be fired.
 
I believe there is either gross incompetence in TDOT or someone is getting a kickback from the brine/salt suppliers.  Please let me know if there is a better explanation other than the one you just sent. 
 
I would still like the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request in my original transmittal. You could shorten it to cover Polk/Bradley/McMinn/Hamilton counties, but you should include a spreadsheet showing the use and cost for each county for the last five years, including this winter season.
 
Doug McNelly

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To Mr. Doug McNelly

I appreciate the opportunity to discuss how the Department of Transportation (TDOT) manages the highway system during expected inclement weather by keeping the roadways safe for the traveling public.  As you know weather prediction is very difficult, changing rapidly and often.  Meteorologists speak about the chance of rain and snow in terms of percentages, because they can never be absolutely sure of future weather events.  Many times the Department has seen a few flurries turn into 2’’-3’’ inches of snow rapidly.  The Department is proactive and feels that the preventative maintenance measures we take to protect the traveling public are necessary. The weather events you are referring to had light rain moving in prior to the snow event. The brine adheres to the roadway during a light rain and as temperatures fall the brine helps to prevent black ice from forming on the pavement surface. Anti-icing measures or placing salt brine on the roadway needs to take place before snow begins to fall and ice starts to form on the roadway. The purpose is to prevent the bond of frozen precipitation to the roadway surface. Anti-icing dramatically cuts the cost of maintaining a safe roadway surface over conventional deicing methods such as the placing of rock salt from a dump truck. 

Anti-icing chemicals are applied in liquid form (brine) to road surfaces just before a snow or ice storm.  This helps to prevent the snow and ice from bonding to the pavement.  Anti-icing returns road surfaces to normal faster, resulting in fewer accidents and traffic delays. The benefits of using salt brine are lower accident rates, reduced cost, and less environmental impact. Rock salt costs the Department between $68.00 to $90.00 a ton and each dump trucks hold 10-20 tons of salt, as you can see this can become very expensive quickly.  If the Department did not place brine on the roadway the snow and ice bond to the pavement would and has been extremely costly to remove.  Salt brine costs 0.06-0.09 cents per gallon to use.  A brine truck can cover more roadway than a salt truck and the brine will stay on the roadway when the rock salt bounces and traffic tends to blow it off the roadway.   

I hope this helps in explaining the Department’s position when dealing with weather events that have the potential to cause travel problems. 

Richard Howell

Regional Construction Manager

Tennessee Department of Transportation