Snow coming at most inconvenient time

Today’s snowstorm has begun. PennDOT says it’s up to the task of clearing snow that falls in between the morning and evening commutes.

PennDOT spokesman Gene Blaum says crews started treating the highways with brine mixtures on Monday to make sure when the snow falls it doesn’t have a chance to stick to the roads. Blaum says it’s easier when snow arrives overnight instead of in the middle of the day.”We may see congested highways for a longer period of time, than we would on a normal evening commute, that does pose a challenge because the more traffic on the roadways that there is the less efficiently our operation can run because our trucks cannot move as move as smoothly as they do as if the traffic was light,” he said.Blaum cautions people who are stuck behind a plow not to attempt to pass it.”Stay at least six car lengths behind the snow plow,” he said.  “Let it safely do its job.  There is no safer place to be than behind a plow.  While the plow is moving the snow off the roadway for traffic it is also dispensing on expresways salt and on less highly trafficed roads a combination of salt and anti-skid.”Blaum says PennDOT does have enough salt to handle the winter weather event.