Winter Maintenance

Pennsylvania DOT Preparing Roads for Winter Storm

Jan. 5, 2024

New facility enables PennDOT to closely monitor conditions

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is planning to monitor traffic and road conditions of this weekend's winter storm from its new regional traffic management center.

"It's a brand new building, we moved in back in March. This is going to be our first winter event," David Adams, senior manager for traffic operations, said in a statement.

From this new facility, operators can monitor roadways through traffic cameras in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Montgomery and Delaware counties.

"This gives us all the tools we need to respond," Adams said.

Operators have approximately 500 cameras across the area. During inclement weather, operators use cameras to monitor conditions, accidents and more. They also have access to more than 200 message boards.

"We bring in all kinds of information to improve our situational awareness so that we can monitor roadways, put in message boards, work with police and our first responders, in addition to our plow trucks and our plow operators when we stand up our incident command center," Adams said.

PennDOT says District 6 is prepared for the season. The lack of bad weather the last couple of winters helped keep supplies up, including some 130,000 tons of salt.

Right now, PennDOT told CBS Philadelphia it is still waiting to see what staffing changes may be needed to tackle the storm both at the management center and on the roads.

"We're tracking the forecast. Will continue to have briefings up until the storm and we're gonna be very adaptable and flexible," Brad Rudolph, PennDOT deputy communications director, said in a statement.

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Source: CBS Philadelphia