ST PAUL, Minn. — Even in Minnesota it's hard to think about winter in November.
"Not ready for it to be this cold," said Christopher Salliture in St. Paul.
MnDOT says they've been ready with their relatively new tool.
"This is an icebreaker," said Gust Scharffbillig with MnDOT. "We just purchased two more this year."
He says MnDOT has 17 of them in the state and now four in the metro.
The icebreaker pokes holes in the ice that is at least an inch thick.
"It makes our roads safer because we're able to get the compacted ice off the surface faster. Now that the ice is fractured or broken we can scrape it off. Very important to us and the environment," said Scharffbillig.
It's also good for our lakes and rivers.
"[They're] eliminating ice from roads using less salt. So this is a good tool for MnDOT," said John Stine at the Freshwater Society.
He says the equipment was on display at a recent salt symposium and is a good example.
"Making smarter use of our shovels and plows letting them do the work so we use less salt," said Stine.
MnDOT says ice breakers cost $37,000. They expect to have more of them in the future.
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