Snowstorm means big expense for state, city

    By: Tom MacDonald

    The weekend snowstorm turned out to be an expensive one for the Philadelphia region. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spent about $2 million in the region. Timing is everything when it comes to snowplowing.

    By: Tom MacDonald
    tmacdonald@whyy.org

    The weekend snowstorm turned out to be an expensive one for the Philadelphia region. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spent about $2 million in the region. WHYY’s Tom MacDonald reports timing is everything when it comes to snowplowing.

    Script:
    PennDOT Spokesman Gene Blaum says the snow removal effort was expensive because it was mostly done on overtime with crews working over the weekend.

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    Blaum: “We had crews out Saturday night into Sunday morning because of snow covering and sleet that parts of the region received and then with the major storm we had crews in on Sunday evening between 5 and 6:30 pm and worked through Monday evening.”

    Blaum says the department is still under budget for the winter season. The same can’t be said for New Jersey, which estimates it will spend at least $3 million on the cleanup.  Philadelphia itself spent between $650 and $700 thousand for snow removal on city streets.

    Listen:
    Click on the play button below or right click on this link and choose “Save Link As” to download. [audio: reports20090303snow.mp3]

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