Did you Know…? Winter Weather Roads
(Article 7, contributed by guest writer, Katelyn Campbell)
Each year, Old Man Winter takes hold of Flat Top Mountain with an icy fist, covering our roads with ice and snow. In winter, keeping the roads clear becomes priority number one for FTL’s stellar crew. In this month’s Did You Know, we share more about our crew’s work and what you can do to travel safely around the lake.In a normal year, FTL starts with two tons of salt and 288 tons of limestone chips, which our crew distributes while plowing using a pickup
truck and a dump truck. It takes three laps around the lake to get the road plowed one time, with each lap clearing about 8 miles of road. David and Cole plow the middle with the pickup and John does both edges with the dump truck. In more extreme weather when snow piles up, John breaks out the tractor to clear the ditches, ensuring there is room for additional plowing. Plowing is round the clock work. On one shift, John was out clearing roads for 20 hours. When it snows, residents should help out by keeping their cars as far out of the road as possible to allow room for plowing!
To protect the lake’s water quality, John uses salt sparingly on only the known icy spots – usually north facing stretches of road or in turns -- using limestone chips for the rest of the road. There are four major trouble spots that require this extra attention (and attentive driving): near lot 38, 100, 169, and 374. The bridge also gets VERY SLIPPERY and freezes before the regular road – proceed with caution!Winter guests tend to have the most problems, so remind visitors about trouble spots and to slow down for our team, pedestrians, and deer who may be crossing the road.
For up-to-date information about road conditions, keep an eye on Facebook – John and David make periodic posts with updates.
