You may recall the snowstorm we had a few weeks ago that had people stuck on I-90 for over 15 hours.
Thankfully, Thursday's snowstorm did not have the same results. But was this due to less snow falling, or did the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) make improvements?
I spoke with Ted Jones, the Bozeman Division Maintenance Chief for MDT, about what they did differently from the last storm to prevent another 15-hour backup.
“We had our senior supervisors come out and help direct those maintenance technicians that were out, that maybe don't have as much experience in dealing with those types of situations. We had more experienced personnel out and call the shots for them, and I think that was a huge improvement,” says Jones.
Jones says the Montana Department of Transportation also tried to get the message out about the upcoming storm, road conditions, and closures by updating its Facebook page.
“We had so many complaints about how we communicated with the public. So we’re trying to be more proactive with getting messages out. And I'll take responsibility for a lot of that. So I'll try to get those updates out to the appropriate people,” says Jones.
Jones says MDT continues to learn from these incidents and is actively making improvements to better themselves for the community.
