Road crews say they're prepared for wintry storm

PITTSBURGH — Winter weather is moving into the area right now. Severe Weather Team 11 is tracking it and monitoring the impact on the morning commute right now on Channel 11 Morning News.

Earlier this week we talked to road crews about how they're prepared to keep the roads clean.

PennDOT

PennDOT officials said crews have been getting ready for this winter since the summer. That is when they started working on all their plow trucks.  Officials also told us they have plenty of salt which will be put down first on bridges and overpasses because they will freeze first.

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Crews are pre-treating the roads Wednesday with brine, which is essentially salt water.

PennDOT officials said the goal is to get residual salt on the roads so when the precipitation falls and hits the roadway there's going to be some salt to prevent it from bonding.

STORM TRACKER: Hour-by-hour timing of wintry mix moving through Pittsburgh area

PennDOT has around-the-clock coverage when it comes to plow drivers, and it will be monitoring the trucks' GPS devices to see it needs to move the trucks to cover more areas.

Officials said it usually takes 90 minutes to get a route done.

WEATHER RELATED HEADLINES: 

• 5 things you won't want to leave in a freezing car
• 7 winter driving tips
• DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts

City of Pittsburgh

City of Pittsburgh officials announced Wednesday new upgrades to the snow and ice control programs.

Some of the upgrades to the Department of Public Works include:

Road salt will be tinted blue in order to help people see that it's been applied to the road. The new mixture has a lower melting point which can be helpful under colder temperatures.

DPW trucks will be equipped with new technology that will allow supervisors to see when a vehicle's plow is up or down, or if the salt spreader is on.

INTERACTIVE RADAR

The current Plow Tracker on the city's website has been suspended until January 2019 when the new tracker and updated features are fully launched.

The city has 137 vehicles that can be equipped for winter snow removal. Plows and spreaders are on 104 city vehicles and another 33 are equipped with plows.

DPW plans to add 44 salt boxes throughout the city. These boxes will be placed at streets that are hilly, have sharp bends or are near steps.

For more details on the city's upgrades CLICK HERE.

Cox Media Group