This year’s tough winter cost the Connecticut Department of Transportation $10 million more than planned. The DOT had budgeted about $30 million for snow and ice removal, based on a ten-year average. But the brutal winter drove costs up to $40 million.  DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick says several long winter storms made the winter more expensive.

“Duration of a storm event has a lot to do with the cost,” says Nursick. “So even if it’s maybe only four or five inches of snow, but it drags on over the course of 24 or 36 hours, that’s a very expensive storm.”

Nursick says some years the DOT can make up a winter cost overrun within the agency budget. but this year, it will have to ask the legislature for help to fill in the budget gap.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts’ transportation department says it spent $131 million on snow and ice removal, well over the $43 million it was budgeted.