Nebraska Department of Roads invites you to their Open House November 1

The shop area for the Nebraska Department of Roads has 20,000 square feet of the 27,000 square foot facility. Photo by Dennis Connot

Above, the crew room has several work stations with computers, a large table for meetings, and lockers to stow gear, a refrigerator to stow meals and beverages.

Who wants to wash a truck in freezing weather? No one. But with this heated wash bay, the task will be much more pleasant. It features enough water capacity for two people to tackle one truck, a two inch fire hose line to wash off the salt and grime, and an undercarriage washer. The trucks are washed after every storm. Each person is assigned a truck for their tenure. Some are coming up on 25 years. They put between 250,000 to 300,000 miles on them before they’re sold. Photos by Laura Vroman

Above, they have two named trucks: Meowcicles and Snowbeast. The trucks feature stainless steel boxes for all the deicing. Computer screens inside for weather information, state of the art electronics and a camera to see what the driver is facing and his road conditions. “It also shows how fast they’re going. They shouldn’t be going more than 50 mph spreading sand. They should be 25 to 30 mph depending on the road. I’ve seen 25 back-end wrecks from people hitting the snow plow.”

At left, the workhorse has 20 inch tires which are tough to get since they’re also used by the military. This snow blower can go through 10 foot drifts. This is what was used on the big snows two winters ago. The ribbons draw the snow in, along with a propeller and it’s blown out the chute. “This has been to the Columbus area last winter for six days, then we sent an operator to O’Neill for close to two weeks. This is what goes if other parts of the state need help.”

A nifty tool they have is a shaker sieve to sort different sizes of gravel in the construction lab.

The construction lab is centrally located with large doors leading from the outside inside. Their counter is a nice height and is a place they can check aggregate, paint samples, soil density and glass beads; survey equipment is also housed here. Dennis Connot said it’s much more user friendly in comparison to the tight space they had before.

Another area houses equipment, tires, and plentiful signs!

Inside, the facility’s lights are heat and sound activated, and they have state of the art fire suppression. Outdoors, the lights are dark sky friendly and face downward. To keep the facility warm there is a 6,000 gallon propane storage area. To keep the roads in good condition, there are two salt sheds that are 65.5 x 123 feet which hold 1,700 tons. Can we say, “Let it snow”???

Nebraska Department of Roads invites you to their Open House November 1