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Alex Cabrero ReportingBlack ice on a beautiful day like today? It's not there, but UDOT is already preparing for it. The change in the calendar means its time to start thinking about winter. Any day now we'll be slip-sliding down the roads, unless UDOT has its way.
How many of us leave our sprinklers on during the winter? Probably no one, except UDOT, and only in the spot on I-215 over 62nd South. Of course, it's not water they're spraying.
Larry Pontarelli, Mgr., Tuscany Restaurant: "And then all of a sudden it turns to snow or sleet and the road starts to freeze up."
Larry Pontarelli has been driving to work at the Tuscany Restaurant in Holladay for years, in good weather and bad. Little did he know a big winter interstate experiment has been going on just a few yards from his business.
Larry Pontarelli: "I had no idea. I've always noticed it, but I had no idea it was the only one."
And not just the only one, but the only one in the entire state of Utah.
Brent Wilhite, UDOT: "It has reduced our crashes related to snow and ice by 40-percent."
You see, when the overpass on I-215 over 62nd South gets icy, sensors detect it and send that information to a nearby weather station. That weather station then tells a big bucket of chemical fluids underneath the overpass to start pumping through pipes, into a box, and out the sprinklers which don't pop up.
It's a de-icing compound designed to increase the temperature of the surface, decrease the snow and ice, and add to your safety.
Brent Wilhite: "We put it in on a kind of experimental test run, and it's proven very successful."
So successful, UDOT wants to add them to an overpass being constructed in Provo Canyon. So successful, Pontarelli has an idea for another spot.
Larry Pontarelli: "Actually there's a location up in North Salt Lake where I live, where they should do that."
The sprinklers have been in place for a few years now. A 40-percent reduction in winter crashes, you can't argue with the results.
