DelDOT officials preparing for the worst ahead of storm

Chad Pradelli Image
Thursday, January 21, 2016
VIDEO: DelDOT officials preparing for the worst ahead of storm
DelDOT is preparing to take on Mother Nature.

NEWARK, Del. (WPVI) -- The forecast is calling for some of the biggest snow totals Delaware has ever seen.

DelDOT officials say preparations have been on the way for days, and they will wrap up, for the most part, Thursday evening. After that it's a waiting game to see what Mother Nature delivers.

DelDOT crews loaded the salt spreaders and brine continued to flow through the pipes and into the trucks Thursday afternoon. Brine had been applied to most roads over the past few days and will continue through the night.

Officials are planning for the worst - possibly two feet.

Don Weber of DelDOT says, "We have ample supplies of salt for this event. We're good for fuel, we're good for equipment, and now it's just waiting for the event to really start to happen."

Maureen Kelley, also of DelDOT, explains, "Just know that it's going to be a long event. We might not get right to your road or your area right away. We have to focus on the interstate, the primaries, and then we go out to the secondaries and the roads that go on after that."

DelDOT will have 450 pieces of equipment on the roads - 150 personnel and additional subcontractors on standby.

Kelley reminds us, "Be mindful of them. Often times we plow in plow trains and sometimes we can't necessarily stop them if we are on the interstate."

DelDOT has unveiled an app that officials want people to download. The transportation agency knows residents want roads cleared, or at least know when it will happen.

"You'll be able to go onto the app real time and be able to see where plows are at any one time throughout the course of the event," Weber explained.

DelDOT says you will be able to start tracking those snow plows sometime Friday night.