In Montgomery County, Maryland, road crews are getting ready for what could be one of the region’s biggest snowfall in years, with officials warning totals could reach double digits and possibly be record‑breaking.
At the county’s salt barn in Gaithersburg, workers are already busy checking equipment and loading materials well before the first flakes fall.
Danny King, chief of field operations with the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, said a storm of this size requires extra attention.
“With a bigger event like this, we definitely pay closer attention and go through all of our plow equipment and everything in fine detail and checking pins, and all of that kind of stuff, making sure everything’s operating properly and isn’t on the verge of breaking,” he said.
Close to 70,000 tons of salt and about 100,000 gallons of brine are on hand ahead of the storm.
“It takes a lot of work and dedication to really get everything squared away and prepared for the event,” King said.
When it comes to plows, Montgomery County has hundreds ready to deploy.
“We have about 275 plows at the ready. And then we can go up to 550 with some construction vehicles that we have standing by,” said Emily DeTitta, communications manager for the county’s Department of Transportation.
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Ahead of the snow, crews are focused on pretreating roads with brine.
DeTitta said the county is also preparing to launch its Storm Operations Center. “We keep an eye on the weather before that to see when it’s coming. And that’s kind of our central hub for communications to react to the storm,” she said.
Once the snow starts falling, the real challenge begins. Plow drivers often work around the clock, sometimes for days at a time.
“Everybody loves the first couple hours in a plow truck, but then the reality sets in, and you realize you’re going to be here for several days,” King said.
He said during heavy snowfall, the clean up is continuous.
“It’s just a constant revolving operation of trying to keep the road clear and the snow is coming down,” King said.
He said residents can help make their jobs safer and easier by moving cars off the street and giving plows plenty of room.
“When you’re around any of the plow operators and the people out working, give them as much space as possible,” he said.
And for those waiting on neighborhood plowing, crews will get there, but it may take time, especially if snow totals rise.
In Montgomery County, residents can check plowing information and service updates on the county’s snow portal.
DC prepares for snow
Anthony Crispino, interim director of D.C.’s Department of Public Works, said his work preparing for the storm that’s expected to barrel through the D.C. area this weekend started days ago.
First, he had to ensure the District would have enough plow operators.
“You’ll have in excess of — for this storm — probably 300 dedicated employees. And that doesn’t include the contracted plows that we bring in as well,” he told WTOP.
Crews already started distributing part of the recipe for successful snow removal: putting layers of brine on D.C. roadways.
The brine, Crispino explained, “is the beet juice and salt mixture that goes down first.”
Then, after the storm begins to approach the region, “We’ll switch over to salting just to get another layer down. And then once snowfall starts, and it hits a certain level of snow, we’ll go to all plowing,” he said.
Crispino said the District appears to be on a “five-year cycle” of massive storms.
“When you’re starting to get up over a foot of snow, it becomes a little bit difficult because we run out of places in the District to put the snow that we plow,” he said.
In order to make the snow removal process smoother, Crispino said there are things that residents can do.
“If an emergency declaration is declared by the mayor’s office, we would ask that residents who live on snow-clearing routes, they move their vehicles well in advance of our operations,” he said.
“We want to be able to push the snow from curb to curb so that we can get the entire roadway open for our fire, EMS and other essential services as quickly as possible.”
Crispino said the weather outlook — with continued frigid temperatures — also complicates matters.
“I would just ask residents to be patient with us, because there will be cascading effects,” he said.
He noted many trash collection routes include alleyways: “Those are harder to clear. I am taking precautions this time around where we are contracting smaller plows to try to hit the areas of alleyways that have trash routes so that we can get collections back to normal.”
Virginia hunkers down (indoors)
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger declared a state of emergency in advance of the winter storm, allowing the Commonwealth to prepare for any impacts.
“Our top priority is the safety of every Virginian. State agencies are mobilized, and we are working closely with local governments and utility partners,” Spanberger said in a news release.
“Everyone should stay informed, avoid travel when possible, and take precautions to protect themselves and their families as this storm moves through our Commonwealth.”
She also told residents to prepare for days without power, or the ability to leave their neighborhoods.
The Virginia Department of Transportation is pretreating bridges and roadways, and are asking motorists to give crews and plows room to work.
WTOP’s Ciara Wells contributed to this report.
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