Pennsylvania road crews tackle incredible amounts of snow

AccuWeather

AccuWeather hears from PennDOT about how their crews are working to clear massive amounts of snow that have already fallen in early winter.

Transcript

00:00Jill, Harry is district press officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

00:06Thank you so much for joining us, Jill.

00:08We want to get right down to it.

00:09We know these storms have been impactful.

00:12How have these past two weeks been?

00:15How have you been impacted?

00:17Well, they've been very challenging for our crews.

00:20They've been working almost nonstop since the snow started there on Thanksgiving.

00:24So we're ready for a little bit of a break, but they're still out there maintaining the

00:28roads as well as you can expect.

00:31And Jill, I know that last winter we had much below average snow in northwest Pennsylvania.

00:35This year, we're off to a tremendous start in the opposite direction.

00:40Does an early blast early on like this change the way you approach the season's planning?

00:45Is there a surplus in salt availability or how's that impacted?

00:51We start our planning for winter in the middle of the summer.

00:54So we already had a lot of the things that we needed in place ready to go well before

00:58Thanksgiving came around.

01:01Part of that really comprehensive planning is how can we shift folks when we need to

01:05when these lake effect storms hit.

01:07So when Thanksgiving storm hit, and again here when we're experiencing this second wave

01:12of snow, we already had all of those plans in place for how we can shift folks around

01:17both within the region and throughout the state to help combat this really large amount

01:22of snow that's come into our area.

01:25You know, on that same point, you know, these drivers during these events, this is early

01:31still season.

01:32Were we seeing any higher numbers when it came to impacts there on the highways?

01:38What are some safety tips that you want them to remember?

01:43Well when it comes to driving in winter weather, I think a lot of Erie County residents are

01:47pretty much experts.

01:48They understand what it takes to navigate the roads and when not to drive.

01:52So that is a really important thing for us because a lot of them know when these lake

01:57effects come in that they need to just stay at home, reschedule things or postpone heading

02:02out to certain events.

02:03So that's been very helpful to us.

02:06For those who do have to go out, you know, we're always telling them make sure you're

02:10giving yourself extra time and extra space.

02:13So you know, make sure that you're staying further back away from folks and you're giving

02:17yourself a lot of time to get there because you're probably going to have to drive a lot

02:20slower than you would on a summer day.

02:22That's very good advice there Jill.

02:24Thanks for sharing that and we appreciate you making time for us here during a busy

02:28stretch there for PennDOT.

02:30Jill Harry, District Press Officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

02:33in Northwest Pennsylvania there in Oil City, Venango County.

02:36Thanks again Jill.

02:37Yep, thanks for having us.

02:39Alright.

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