First Snowfall of Season Proved Challenging

by Jonathan Weaver

The first snowfall of 2015 that coated roads and bridges throughout the region challenged overnight and morning drivers Tuesday, as well as delayed school for students.

Starting about 3AM and continuing with scattered showers throughout the day, snowfall ranged from one to three inches throughout Armstrong County, PennDOT
County Maintenance Manager Andrew Firment said.

“Overall, we feel things went very well considering the temperatures. Temperatures this morning (were) between 11 and 12 degrees (Fahrenheit),” Firment said. “Below 20 degrees, salt really isn’t all that effective, so our strategy at that point in time had to be plowing roads and putting anti-skid material on the hills, curves and intersections. As the day progresses, temperatures came up and we started to get roads cleared.”

All 31 PennDOT maintenance plows were out Tuesday morning throughout the county and remained in operation throughout both working shifts and into this morning if needed, Firment said. Snow and salt are stored in Kittanning, Crooked Creek, Kiski Township, Worthington, Cowansville, Distant, Snyderville and Kittanning Township stockpiles.

“We saw a lot of good things – with temperatures that low, we saw some bare pavement with wheel tracks exposed with no running water which didn’t give the possibility of a freeze back,” Firment added.

According to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, scattered snow showers will continue throughout the day, with the big factor being the freezing temperatures. High temperatures today are not expected to reach more than 13 below zero and wind chills could make that feel more like 11 below zero with gusts of up to 30 miles per hour.

That’ll mean more plowing for PennDOT crews if snow falls and more antiskid to assist motorists, as well as a wind chill advisory through tomorrow afternoon.

Firment advised motorists to slow down on State and local roadways.

“The biggest thing is, when you have these colder temperatures and have roads that appear wet, there’s always that possibility that they could be frozen – even if they appear to be in decent shape. So, you always have to use extreme caution when driving in any kind of winter weather – especially during cold temperatures,” Firment said.

Due to the winter storm impacting the region, speed limits were reduced this morning to 45 miles per hour on I-379 (Parkways East and West) and I-79 – especially after a truck fire along southbound I-79 closed the roadway and detoured traffic. All speeds are restored to their usual posted limits.

PennDOT maintains nearly 40,000 miles of roads and 25,000 bridges statewide which translates into nearly 96,000 snow-lane miles, according to their official website. To tackle this task, PennDOT uses more than 2,256 trucks, plows and salt spreaders, operated by 5,400 licensed department operators. The department also rents about 271 trucks and their operators to assist with snow removal operations.

During 2013, PennDOT used 861,000 tons of anti-skid and 1.2 million tons of salt to help keep Pennsylvania drivers moving.

During a storm, PennDOT will plow and salt major highways first before moving to the less traveled rural roads. During severe winter storms, equipment is often redirected from assigned rural routes to assist with plowing the more heavily traveled roads first.