For when the weather outside is frightful
Never too soon for PennDOT planning
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The snow isn't falling yet.
But it isn't too soon to start planning for when it does.
Representatives from the Warren County School District, Warren County Emergency Management Agency, Warren County Planning & Zoning, Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, State Representative Kathy Rapp's office and several school bus contractors participated in a session put on by PennDOT on Friday morning intended to serve as an update on PennDOT's winter maintenance efforts.
"Priority plowing is going to be a major push," said Adam Elms, Warren and Forest county PennDOT maintenance director, said during the meeting held at the Allegheny National Forest headquarters in North Warren.
He described the session as a time to share "why we do what we do."
"The expectations we set out are to have (a) consistent level of service from beginning to end," Elms said. "Obviously, we would all like bare roads."
But "financial constraints make that a challenge. "The legislator funding for maintenance if derived by a formula. The formula hasn't changed," he said. "Obviously, every year we lose a little bit more buying power."
Elms said that they have had a history of spending most of their winter maintenance budget - roughly $2.5 million - by the holidays, requiring them to "tighten up" in January, February and March.
The plowing procedures can also prove tricky.
"We got caught a couple times last year," she said. "I think we took a hard lesson in a couple early storms around Thanksgiving. (We) need to get better at shifting resources.
That's the trick - making the resources available go as far as possible.
"Our goal is a safe passable roadway, as clear as possible," Elms said. "A big push to our staff is to keep the main routes as a priority."
Elms said that is a shift in focus.
He said that one plow has a route that covers one part of the county and that previously the driver would plow US 6 and then Blue Eye Rd. with the end result that Blue Eye is plowed while snow accumulates on US 6, the higher priority roadway.
"Some of the roads are going to let go."
In addition to the focus on main routes, another significant change this year is in staff.
"It's retirement season in Forest and Warren," Elms said. "In Warren, we're going to have a dozen people who have never sat in a plow truck yet. There's going to be a learning curve."
While that means that 50 percent of the operators will be in their post for the first time, Elms noted that "every time it snows, they are gaining experience."
Elms said the department usually spends about $2.5 million annually on winter maintenance - which includes materials and personnel and is funded through the Motor License Fund and the state's gas tax, in addition to some other "pots of money."
"Winter is the driver. We never take any money out of winter," Elms said, explaining that if they exhaust the winter budget by February or March they can take funding from the summer and equipment budgets to cover the difference.
Five year averages indicate that 5,400 tons of sale, 12,900 tons of anti-skid and 570,000 galls of brine are used annually.
"We use the same mix - three scoops of sand and one scoop of salt," Elms said.
And the temperature or the condition of the roadway indicate what is used.
For example, salt brine doesn't function as well as lower temperatures but anti-skid won't stick to the roadway without the brine.
"If we can't keep the material on the road, it doesn't do any good," he said.
Elms said they try to hit those five year averages for budgetary reasons as anything saved can be moved to summer project.
Assistant County Manager Adam Hoisington said that the project completed this year on a stretch of Jackson Road was funded primarily out of savings.