BOSTON Winter's full fury arrived late in much of the country but once it did it was relentless, quickly exhausting snow removal budgets and pushing the resources of state transportation agencies to their limit as they fought to keep highways safe and passable, according to a first-of-its-kind survey.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials said 23 states reported combined spending of more than $1 billion on winter maintenance operations and 8 million work hours plowing or treating state roads from October to March.The states that responded also went through 6 million tons of salt and other huge quantities of brine and liquid deicing chemicals."This winter the storms just came one on top of the other and there wasn't time in between to replenish your salt piles and give your folks some time off," said Rick Nelson, coordinator of the association's Snow and Ice Cooperative Program.Pennsylvania, which budgeted $203 million for winter maintenance based on a five-year average of previous expenditures, spent $272 million to keep traffic flowing on the state's 40,000 miles of roadway, according to Erin Waters-Trasatt, a transportation spokeswoman.In addition, crews also worked 2.5 million hours to keep roads passable and used 1 million tons of salt.Pennsylvania was among several states that sent crews and equipment to help out in Massachusetts, Trasatt said.It wasn't just the typical northern snow belt states that felt winter's wrath.The actual taxpayer cost of winter road maintenance was much higher than measured by the survey. Not all states responded and the expenses incurred by municipalities for plowing local roads was seen as comparable to state governments.Unlike the previous winter, AASTHO said there were no serious shortages of salt this year.Winter maintenance needs can often be overlooked in transportation planning, said Bud Wright, the group's executive director."When we think about funding transportation we need to consider the total amount needed to keep people and goods moving throughout the entire year," he said.States are prohibited from using federal highway funds for snow and ice removal, but some sought federal disaster assistance to offset costs.President Barack Obama approved disaster declarations for Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut for a January blizzard, making those states eligible for 75 percent reimbursement. But a broader request from Massachusetts to consider all the major storms a cumulative disaster was denied.