With the help of Governor Jim Justice and the West Virginia Legislature, the West Virginia Division of Highways – part of the West Virginia Department of Transportation – recently bought 110 new John Deere tractor mowers that are being deployed across state’s 10 highway districts.
[Above photo by WVDOT]
The tractor mowers, with a unit cost of about $122,000, are paid for through a supplemental budget allocation requested the governor and approved by the legislature. They are slated primarily for use on West Virginia’s secondary roads, the agency added.
The WVDOH schedules interstates and expressways to be mowed at least three times a year. Secondary roads are to be mowed at least twice a year. The goal is to have even small, rural, low-traffic roads mowed at least once each year.
“We do a very good job mowing our expressways,” said Joe Pack, WVDOH chief of operations, in a statement. “We expect the same on our secondary roads.
Keeping expressways and roadsides mowed is not just an aesthetic exercise, he stressed, as keeping grass and brush mowed alongside the road makes it easier to see other traffic, prevents vegetation from damaging cars, and helps with drainage and drying off wet road surfaces.
WVDOT noted that the new mowers are supplementing existing machines and replacing machines that had lived out their lives or were requiring too much down time and expense to keep in running order. In some cases, the agency said its maintenance crews were re-using parts from old machines to maintain tractors for which parts are no longer available.
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