CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The rain that fell all day Wednesday is a challenge for crews as they get ready to make sure local and state roads don’t freeze over.
“The change in precipitation is a great challenge for us,” said Kelley Maurer, Cranberry Township Public Works Director. “If we know there’s a big storm coming, we know how to manage it, but this one will be a little different.”
The difference here is that crews cannot pre-treat the roads because of the rain that’s been falling all day. It would simply just wash away with the rain, and not prevent any ice from forming.
So, crews in Cranberry spent the day getting all of their trucks ready. Channel 11 got an up-close look at the trucks filled with fresh salt and brine, ready to tackle this next round of winter weather.
“Tonight, we can see when that temperature is, probably around 9:30. We’ll bring the crews out probably an hour ahead of time, so they are already out there actively putting down the salt. If we wait till that icing happens, we’re too late,” Maurer said.
PennDOT is ready for the wintry mix of weather as well.
“We keep a very close eye on the weather, the temperatures, to see when does rain stop, and when does snow start, and when do these temperatures really start to drop, like it looks like they will be doing over the overnight hours,” said Christina Gibbs with PennDOT District 10.
PennDOT has 45 plow trucks and 82 crew members for Butler County. For the whole of District 10, which includes Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana and Jefferson counties — PennDOT has 166 plow trucks for more than 7,000 snow-lane miles to treat.
“It’s a lot of roadway to cover, especially in a mixed bag kind of storm that we’re getting so that is why we encourage folks to not travel if you don’t need to,” Gibbs said.
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