MoDOT trains for winter weather with inexperienced plow drivers [Video]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KY3) – There’s just starting to be a chill in the air, but MoDOT workers are already looking ahead to winter. The department is preparing for a white winter with a very green staff.

Engineer Jason Shafer and other Missouri Department of Transportation employees spent Thursday preparing for the upcoming winter weather. This could be their first winter out on the roads for many MoDOT drivers.

“Some of them have not seen winter yet at all,” Shafer said.

MoDOT has struggled to fully staff its snow plow units for the past couple of years, but recent pay raises alleviate some of that difficulty.

State workers received an 8.7% pay raise last year, and the Missouri General Assembly added another 3.2% cost-of-living raise. That raise has helped MoDOT fill over 1,000 open positions this year, but new staff means more training, as 19 percent of MoDOT’s drivers have …