WASHINGTON — This winter鈥檚 been a budget-buster for the state of Maryland. State Highway Administration spokesman Dave Buck says roughly $50 million was budgeted for winter road clean up, and the state鈥檚 already spent $70 million. That figure doesn鈥檛 include Saturday鈥檚 snow storm.
In Virginia, $52 million dollars was set aside for making sure roads were passable, and officials tell 91欧美激情 that鈥檚 close to what鈥檚 been spent so far.
In Montgomery County, Keith Compton, chief of the Division of Highway Services for the county鈥檚 Department of Transportation says $9.5 million was budgeted for snow removal, and after Saturday鈥檚 storm, the amount spent to clear roadways is closer to $13 million.
Buck says clearing the roadways on Saturday was especially problematic in Maryland because of the number of cars on the road. Despite repeated messages telling drivers to stay home, crews found themselves stuck in traffic while trying to treat highways and secondary roads.
Buck says he thinks people simply didn鈥檛 believe that the region would get the amount of snow originally predicted, and were taken by surprise by the fast-developing storm that dumped more than expected on the region. Buck says, 鈥淲e had probably six to eight times 鈥� that I can think of – where we were on the 34 degree side of things, and not the 30 degree side of things,鈥� meaning times when a substantial amount of snow was predicted, but failed to materialize.
