ODOT moves bidding for road salt to May

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Ohio Department of Transportation is already looking ahead — way ahead — to next winter.

Road salt for this winter was so difficult to get last year that department officials are moving up the 2009 bidding process by three months, to May rather than August.

Salt companies say they can provide only as much salt as can be mined and that most of what they mined last year was committed to states that requested bids earlier.

By the time Ohio opened bids, it found offers for the necessary salt for only 45 of the 88 counties. A second round left 25 counties, most in southern Ohio, without salt contracts.

Spokesman Scott Varner says ODOT uses 500,000 to 700,000 tons a winter and is able to store about 500,000 tons.