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Here’s how road crews across the area are tackling Tuesday’s snow

GIBSONIA, Pa. — Crews are ready for the snow that is falling across the area Tuesday and into Wednesday.

LATEST FORECAST: Winter advisory, warning in effect as snow falls across Pittsburgh region

Allegheny County

Twenty-six salt trucks with plows were deployed at 4 a.m. Tuesday to treat county roads and bridges, county public works officials told Channel 11.

Additional drivers will be brought in as needed, and drivers will be kept over at the end of their shifts until the snow stops falling to make sure roads across the county are clear.

TRACK THE SNOW: WPXI’s Interactive Radar

Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Works had extra staff from 10 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday, with 55 trucks spreading magnesium chloride salt on road surfaces.

Drivers are being asked to drive slow, and to leave room for salt truck drivers to get by.

As of noon, roads were primarily only wet on Pittsburgh’s North Shore despite several inches of snow accumulation on grassy areas.

Butler County

PennDOT officials in Butler County are asking drivers to be patient and allow extra travel time as the snow falls.

Crews will be out treating the roads and monitoring conditions.

They will focus on primary roads first, then move to secondary roads.

Several inches of snow have fallen in Cranberry Township, where some streets were mainly wet and others were slushy around noon.

One family said the first snow of the year is always beautiful.

“They wanted to go out early at 7 a.m. this morning, so they got the snow in the bucket and put it in the freezer for Italian ice,” Andy Brown, of Cranberry, said.

Brown’s children had no problem enjoying the winter weather.

“They will stay out here as long as we let them. I don’t know if nana and papa will make it out that much. They love it and we haven’t had snow for so long, so we’re going to enjoy it,” Debi Brown said.

Westmoreland & Fayette counties

The snow plows are fixed on the front of the PennDOT trucks in the highest areas of Westmoreland County.

We talked to road crews about how they’re prepping for what’s expected to be the first significant snowfall of the season.

“Fayette County and Westmoreland County have the mountain areas and the ridges that run along there, so those folks are particularly going to be impacted by that, but our folks are ready to go,” said Jay Ofsanik of PennDOT.

PennDOT said it started to get the trucks and supplies ready back in early fall, so they’re prepped and ready with a full fleet. But with the rainfall Monday, PennDOT couldn’t do any pretreating ahead of the storm.

“Usually if we have an opportunity to, but right now it’s raining, so the pretreatment doesn’t work very well because if we put salt brine or salt down the rain is going to wash it away,” Ofsanik said.

Some of the highest areas of elevation, in eastern Westmoreland and Fayette counties, will see the most accumulation.

Three to 6 inches of snow could be dumped on the Laurel Highlands by the end of Tuesday.

Donegal Township said four trucks were prepped and ready to plow starting at 5 a.m. Tuesday, but PennDOT said it’s always good to give yourself some extra time, especially for the morning commute.

“Anytime that holds off, that helps us ... helps us, our trucks, helps our operators and helps the motoring public to get around without having to deal with that but, unfortunately, the first snow is the one that gets everyone’s attention,” Ofsanik said.

Crews were out starting Monday night and will work 12 hour shifts as needed throughout the length of the storm.

We also talked to officials in Donegal Township. You can watch that full video below: