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`Slime' stops ice from sticking Photo by Bob Pennell The Oregon Department of Transportation's "slime truck" sprays liquid magnesium chloride on a bridge near the Siskiyou summit on Interstate 5. Use of the de-icing solution has cut the number of accidents -- and fatalities -- on the pass, state highway officials say. Winters keep road crews busy By MELISSA MARTIN ASHLAND -- Heading to California over the Siskiyous this winter? Once you leave Ashland, you twist and climb 2,300 feet to the top in just seven short miles. And the northbound descent from the 4,310-foot summit is just as challenging, with its curves, slow-moving semis and rapid drop to the valley floor. But you won't be alone. There are 13,000 to 14,000 vehicles that drive the Siskiyou Summit each day, along with a few guardian angels -- Oregon Department of Transportation employees who keep the roads clear and the traffic flowing. The bright yellow de-icing truck makes its way up to the Siskiyou summit on Interstate 5 south of Ashland. ODOT's maintenance shops in Ashland and on the summit have snowplows and snowblowers standing by, waiting to clear the snow when it falls on Interstate 5, Highway 66 or the road to Mount Ashland. And even when it's not snowing, crews are driving the de-icer trucks, applying liquid magnesium chloride to the roads to prevent ice from forming on the pavement. "We have 30 people working three shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, November to April," said Robert Tolman, transportation maintenance manager for ODOT in Ashland. They cover three mountain passes in a 44-mile territory from the California border to Ashland and east to the Klamath River. But the Siskiyou Summit may be the greatest challenge for highway crews with its steep, 6 percent grade and high volume of truck traffic. It has a grade and curves similar to Cabbage Hill on Interstate 84 between Portland and La Grande. "The Siskiyou Summit is a steep climb and there's not a lot of room at the top of the hill to pull over and put chains on," Tolman said. That's why highway crews require cars and trucks to chain up at the bottom during a storm. Because of the proliferation of vehicles chaining up at the bottom of the hill, ODOT crews developed what may be unique to the Siskiyou Summit -- pusher trucks. Pushers are old Sno-Cats with metal railroad ties on the front and a concrete block on the back. "We use them to push trucks or cars after they've chained up at the bottom of the hill and need help getting started again," Tolman said. Crews already have had the pusher trucks out this winter, when the summit was closed because traffic was backing up. "It's frustrating when you've done everything you can, sanding, de-icing, plowing, and then to have to close the road because people won't chain up," Tolman said. Last winter, southbound lanes were closed for about 37 hours and northbound lanes were closed 11 hours. But the worst winter crews can remember was in 1998, when one storm dropped 19 inches of snow during a crew's 12-hour shift. "I've seen that highway plugged plumb tight for one mile on either end," said Bob Smoot, who drives ODOT equipment on the summit in the winter. "We just get out our push trucks and clear it up quickly." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA