The roads where I live were plowed pretty well by the time I had to go outwards the day of the big ice (last Thursday). Penn DOT did a fine job on both of the SRs (State Routes) and at least did something with the tertiary road that leads to the gravel private raod I actually live on.
I used to work for Penn DOT as a college summer employee. I was the person who held the STOP/SLOW sign. I risked my life for seven bucks an hour and spent my days walking 10 miles in 90 degree heat and 80% humidity carrying a 20 lb steel pole with a steel stop sign on it while drivers of all persuasions screamed language at me that would make even the most seasoned of alcoholic sailors blush.
I know where the stories of the do-nothing Penn DOT employees come from, because there are times it happens. And then there are times that we busted our asses working overtime with little or no rest to make sure that a road was travel-safe. All in all the twenty guys I worked with are responsible for over 200 miles of SRs, which are your more major state highways that are named with a two or three digit number, interstate highways, and untold miles and miles of tertiary SRs whose designations consist of four numbers. The guys who actually drive the plows have to be supported by other guys, so there were never twenty trucks on the road out of one garage at once, because someone had to stay back to operate the front loader that deposits anti-icing chemical, salt and sand in the trucks, someone else has to run whatever other maintenance is going on at the time (such as repairing a sink hole that could kill someone) there has to be a crew available to handle emergencies that come up (accidents, downed trees, downed telephone poles, damage to guide rails and other highway structures) and someone’s got to be out cleaning up whatever the hell it is the storm knocked down. If there are 10 fully loaded trucks running out of one garage at a time, it’s a good day.
Each of those trucks has an assigned mileage area to cover, and they try to keep up with it, but if the snow and/or ice is still coming down, it can be quite difficult to plow and anti-ice a road completely on a constant basis. It’s especially important to remember that to plow a 10 mile stretch of two lane road, the driver will definitely have to plow twice (once in each direction for each lane) and will have to fill the Tandem dump truck several times with sand, salt and anti-ice. The trucks hold only so much.
Now I’m not saying there are no lazy Penn DOT workers or that there are no times they could do a better job, but there are times that they do the best they can, and they can’t do anymore. The guys who were out at 10:30 pm starting to anti-ice before the big snowfall had already worked a full day on Wednesday, they were already scheduled to be at work at 7:00 am on Thursday, and they were called out in the middle of the night to prepare for the snow. Without 3 inches of snow on the ground, they cannot drop their plows because the plows are protected from damage by at least a one inch clearance and a rubber strip. If the blade of the plow actually touched the ground, they’d have to be serviced far more often due to breakage of plows, and it would damage the road itself. Thus, they have to wait for the snow to build up to a level where it is safe to plow.
Most of them are trying guys, please understand that there are limits to Penn DOT (or any other DOT’s) abilities to turn winter into summer as far as roads go. Snow is hard to clear, ice is harder. Especially if the temperature drops below 20 degrees and most of the anti-icing chemicals that are still legal for use on roads (pollution and all) lose effectiveness.
Please don’t toast me too much for being a former Penn DOT’r.
