ODOT crushes cinders for winter traction

Most days, the cinder pit at Zimmerman Butte, about four miles west of Sisters, reverberates with gunfire as target shooters hone their firearms skills.

The past couple of weeks, though, the pit has been dominated by the roar and rattle of a rock crusher and conveyer belts as an Oregon Department of Transportation crew crushes thousands of cubic yards of cinders for use this winter on Sisters Country roads.

ODOT is crushing the dark red rock of the butte into 4,999 cubic yards of cinders that will be stored at a site just off Highway 126 a few miles east of Sisters. Road crews will spread the cinders on icy roads this winter to provide traction.

"It's very light," said highway manager Swede Barber. "It's barely heavier than pumice."

Central Oregon's cinder is the envy of road crews across the state. It's better than crushed basalt rock.

"It's got many more edges," Barber said. "It's got more grit and traction. Beautiful stuff."

ODOT uses less of the beautiful stuff than it used to.

"We're using a lot more magnesium chloride," Barber said.

The chemical deicer works well to keep snow and ice from forming on the highway, and it seems to perform well in urban areas. Magnesium chloride doesn't turn into pasty mud that sticks to cars and trucks, nor does it dry out and blow around like cinders.

But it has its limitations. It doesn't penetrate packed snow and its effectiveness diminishes in harder cold snaps.

"When it's really cold, magnesium chloride doesn't work," Barber said. "We try not to use it below 25 degrees. There's a very specific application for it. I don't see where we'll ever get away from cinders."

ODOT last mined Zimmerman Butte four years ago. The crushed pile from this year's operation will last about a year.

ODOT handles the work in-house, using its own equipment. Barber notes that District 10, covering much of Central Oregon, is the only district in the state that has its own crushing equipment. The do-it-yourself project costs about $3-$8 per cubic yard, with additional costs to haul away the cinders.

Barber said that the cost is lower than ODOT can secure from outside contracting - and they can crush what they need instead of crushing massive quantities to get the per-cubic-yard cost down.

"We have 26 sites that we have to have cinders at," said ODOT's Pat Creedican. "That's all of Central Oregon. When you take all that into account, you can't beat having your own crusher."

Lead operator, Dan Price, who leads a crew composed of Graham Amacher and Jim Wible, said the operation would wrap up Tuesday with trucks coming in to haul away the equipment on Wednesday, September 30. Then it's on to other operations across Central Oregon.

Sisters' ODOT crew will spend the next couple of weeks hauling and piling the results of the mining operation.

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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