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The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) and Des Moines International Airport (DSM) thought last winter was bad. That was until this winter rolled through, packing a punch to the DOT’s sand supply and forcing the airport to ask for an additional $250,000 in its fiscal 2009 operating budget.

“December was the fourth-highest amount of snowfall in record-keeping time, so there has been a lot of snowfall, more snowfall than we had last year,” said DOT spokeswoman Dena Gray-Fisher. “Last year was not a very good year for our five-year average either, but the weather is so unpredictable.”

Gray-Fisher said November and December’s below-average temperatures caused the DOT to really dig into its sand supply; more than 21,675 tons of sand have been used already this winter, which is more than 98 percent of the five-year average of sand used annually. The DOT compares this year’s total usage of snow- and ice-fighting materials with total usage averaged over five years to help it determine how many resources have been used to date, Gray-Fisher said. And for the DOT, only 54 percent of the winter season is complete.

“When you start seeing sand usage going up, that tells you that it has been colder than normal, which means it was less effective to use salt, but we had to use an abrasive,” she said. “November and December were odd months in that the temperatures were so cold during certain periods that salt was not effective, requiring a higher usage of sand to provide traction on icy roads.”

This generous application of sand on the roadways, however, does not mean that the state is facing a shortage of sand. Gray-Fisher said that unlike salt, sand is easy to obtain if the department were to need more. “Sand is a readily available product, so it is of a lesser concern regarding availability,” she said, noting that “material usage generally goes down in January and February because it is colder and there is more snow and less ice, but it’s very unusual this year.”

One concern that has sprouted from this unusual winter is the hours of labor that have already been expended: 228,521 total hours, or 73.2 percent of the five-year annual average, with a lot of winter weather still expected. So rather than paying attention to the amount of sand used, Gray-Fisher suggests “managers may be paying closer attention to the amount of labor used,” she said. “Storm frequency has been problematic this year and has demanded a lot of snowplow operator resources, so obviously we had to have more labor. But that is also because we had a lot of back-to-back storms over the holidays, which generates overtime as well.”

Craig Smith, aviation director for DSM, is all too familiar with similar seasonal budget demands. Just a couple of weeks ago, the airport board had to ask for an adjustment to its revised fiscal year 2009 operating budget because it had already spent the $300,000 that was allocated for airfield de-icing chemicals.

“We have had 10 icing events already, and when there is this much snow, it’s just a matter of equipment and labor,” Smith said.

For fiscal 2008, the airport budgeted $175,000 for runway de-icing chemicals but ended up spending $354,000 as a result of unforeseen ice and snow. In response, the de-icing budget for fiscal ’09 increased to $300,000, which barely sustained the airport into the new year and, in turn, forced the board to ask the Des Moines City Council for more money.

“We already spent that (money) and had to go back and ask for $250,000 more,” Smith said. “We hope we don’t spend that much, but we just want to be on the safe side.”

Smith said one reason the airport spent this year’s allocated funds so quickly was due to the increase in the cost of E36, a biodegradable runway de-icer, which jumped in price to $6 per gallon this year from $2.19 per gallon last year. “(E36) comes out of a mine in Canada, and that mine went on strike, so supply has been very limited and the company had to raise the price.”

But despite price hikes, cold temperatures and almost half of a winter still left, Smith and Gray-Fisher remain optimistic that they will get through the remainder of the season.

“So far, we are still optimistic,” Gray-Fisher said. “We are trying to be as conservative as possible in the usage, but we still need to provide the safe mobility that people need.”

And as for Smith, perhaps he jinxed himself when he signed his letter from the director in the airport’s newsletter two months ago with a “Here’s hoping this winter is NOTHING like last winter!”

Now he says, “Well, I was wrong. I’m ready for spring.”