Crews Loading Salt and Gearing Up for Next Storm

(February 24, 2010) – The Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration (SHA) is prepared for whatever Mother Nature brings overnight and Thursday.  With weather forecasts calling for accumulating snow and high winds west of the I-95 corridor, the men and women of SHA are ready.  Some SHA crews are spraying salt brine on highways, particularly bridges and ramps, to prevent ice from bonding to road surfaces, particularly along I-70 and I-270 in Frederick County.

“During this unprecedented winter season, our dedicated road crews have done an excellent job battling heavy snowfall in order to keep our roads passable and safe,” said Governor Martin O’Malley.  “With another storm on the horizon, our salt supplies have been restocked and our crews are rested and ready yet again. We will have all hands on deck to combat whatever weather comes our way.”

SHA has replenished salt supplies and has 200,000 tons stocked, nearly 2,400 pieces of equipment and 2,600 people available to respond to the storm.  Officials will monitor the storm from SHA’s Statewide Operations Center (SOC) in Hanover with centralized communications and access to more than 300 traffic cameras.  Through technology, teams monitor pavement temperatures, winds, visibility and traffic speeds.  SOC operators are able to post information on electronic signs for motorists and communicate with emergency responders and state and local police.

For the latest weather and road conditions and to view live traffic cameras during the storm, citizens can log onto www.roads.maryland.gov and click on CHART.  Customers may also follow SHA on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mdsha or call the Winter Storm hotline at 1-800-327-3125 for a regularly updated message with weather and roadway conditions.  If you need to report a non-emergency issue for SHA, please log onto the website and click on the Service Request link from the “Contact Us” page.

Citizens are asked to remember that each team of SHA crews and contractors is assigned to plow and salt 20-25 mile routes along interstate, US and MD/State numbered routes.  It can take a plow driver up to 1.5 to two hours to complete a route, including reloading salt.  Motorists should never pass a snow plow or plow train (multiple snow plows in tandem across all travel lanes).  Drivers should remember that the untreated roadway is ahead of the plows, the safer roadway is behind them.