NJDOT's Crew 410 keeps the roads safe in South Jersey

PENNSAUKEN, N.J. (WPVI) -- As most of us slept overnight, NJDOT Crew 410-Pennsauken Yard sprang into action.

The maintenance yard and its small army of mechanics, drivers, and operations personnel prepare all year for storms like this.

They started arriving at 11 a.m. the day before the storm. It's a full five hours before the first flake was supposed to fall.

Then they completed pre-checks of their trucks, plows and cargo bays. Once the inspections are complete, they line up for the salt and the start of their shift on the highways.

John Bystrycki, the operations division director for the South Region, calls it a well-oiled machine.

"There's a lot of planning that goes into these types of operations. The amount of personnel that we need, contractors that we need to support, all to keep the motoring public safe," said Bystrycki.

The salt tent onsite houses 5,000 tons of rock salt. One by one the NJDOT trucks are loaded up to the brim with the salt and wetted with calcium chloride.

These road crews will work 12-hour shifts through the snow event.

This yard is responsible for areas from Bordentown to West Deptford and into Cherry Hill, all in South Jersey. All told, they will continue throughout the storm clearing portions of Routes 130, 38, 90 and 41.

Bystrycki says it's a little stressful coordinating all the moving parts. But he looks forward to the after-action reports where he can see how well his team did. Ten employees are operating out of the Pennsauken Yard, and he is responsible for 187 DOT operations employees in the South Region.

"It's a little stressful. You try to plan for everything but I have a lot of support, not only out in the field, but back in my operations command center too. When I look and see the roads are blacktop and running water, I know it's a job well done. That the roads are safe and that the commuters will get to where they need to go," said Bystrycki.