ODOT crews prepare for winter

As temperatures drop and storms roll through the Sisters country, road workers are getting ready to handle the ice and snow of winter.

The Oregon Department of Transportation launched a cinder crushing operation at a pit off of Forest Road 500 west of Sisters on October 25. The cinder pit, which many local shooters use for target practice, has for the past couple of weeks been crowded with bulldozers, dump trucks and dominated by the long arm of a crusher.

"It's basically part of our preparing for winter," said ODOT spokesman Dan Knoll.

Four trucks are running three trips each per hour, running crushed cinders from the pit to the ODOT maintenance yard at the west end of Sisters. Crews will ultimately take 10,000 cubic yards of material out of the pit for storage at the maintenance site, Knoll said.

Road maintenance crews use about 5,000 cubic yards each winter, so the operation should lay in a two-year supply.

The red crushed cinders are spread on highways in snowy and icy conditions to improve traction. Sisters road crews are responsible for covering 18 miles of Highway 126 to Redmond; 12 miles of Highway 20 west from Sisters to Jack Lake Road; and about six miles of Highway 242.

The project is expected to be completed around November 15.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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