Road crews ready for Monday morning's wintry mix

A wintry mix is headed out way during the morning commute Monday and road crews are already prepared to treat the roads.

"We are bringing in all our state crews tonight at midnight so we'll have 182 trucks on the road ready to spread salt when precipitation does begin to fall," said Gene Blaum, PennDOT.

PennDOT says they will add contractors on Monday and expect to have more than 300 trucks on the road.

District 6 covers five counties including major thoroughfares.

PennDOT yards from Malvern to South Philadelphia were packed with tons of salt - ready for whatever comes our way.

"We'll continue to watch forecasters. If we feel we need additional help in the five counties we'll call in additional contractors," said Blaum.

Commuters like Carol Rapp are listening to the forecast and preparing ahead of the morning ride.

"I'm going to bring up my shovel, my ice melt from the garage so I'll have all that ready to go. I'm getting gas in the car so I'll be ready to go and I'll be up early," said Rapp.

Some optimistic travelers are comparing this forecast to what we saw this time last year.

"I'd rather take a little bit of sleet rather than 12-15 inches of snow," said Thomas Feiger.

Philadelphia's Streets Department will have 70 salt crews hitting the road at midnight.

They will be salting prominent streets and also those at high elevation. That includes roadways in placed like Manayunk where the narrow, winding streets ice over quickly and could make for a potentially dangerous morning if not treated.

This time last year, PennDOT already used four times as much salt as they have now which puts into perspective how easy our winter has been thus far.