MARYLAND - County road crews across Maryland’s Eastern Shore spent Wednesday preparing for the approaching winter storm, applying lessons learned from last winter while readying equipment and staffing for what officials say could be a prolonged cleanup effort.
Officials with the Wicomico County Roads Division said they are focused on route prioritization and manpower planning ahead of the storm, but that crews must remain flexible given the many variables at play.
“Whether or not we're going to start with ice freezing rain and then turn to snow, or it's going to be a complete snow event … it does change how we do business depending on whether we have a nice light, fluffy snow or very heavy, wet snow,” Adam Corry, acting director of public works for Wicomico County, said. “All those things dictate how we attack the clearing operations."
Wicomico County will deploy 29 trucks. Currently, the county has 400 tons of salt ready to go, with an additional 200 tons of salt expected within the next few days.
Scott Green is the Wicomico County Roads Division Superintendent.
“Hoping with our manpower that we can run them in ten-hour intervals and let them rest for a couple of hours,” Green said. “We’re going to be running nonstop and praying for breaks.”
Last winter’s back-to-back weather events were a first for many road crew members. Corry said that prepared them to better tackle the forecasted volume of this snowstorm.
"We had some new crew members last year that got trial by fire and now we're ready to put on our best game to make sure we're hitting this thing right,” Corry said.
There is very little calm before the storm for Worcester County crews, either, as they get ready to roll out a new pretreatment tool.
Previously, crews prepared homemade brine at a rate of about 900 gallons per hour. The division’s new brine maker can produce 15,000 gallons in the same amount of time.
"We use salt brine as a pretreatment,” Worcester Roads Superintendent Kevin Lynch said. “Mainly, it helps with the ice and snow not binding to the road, and it gives you a little bit more time to get there to plow it off before it does freeze."
Officials in both counties told WBOC that it is important for people to stay off the roads if possible. If you do have to be on the roads, they ask you to pay extra attention to conditions, be patient with crews and keep a reasonable distance to ensure roads are treated as efficiently and safely as possible.
Stay up to date on the approaching winter storm with radar and hourly forecasts in the WBOC weather app, available for Apple and Android.
Manténgase informado sobre la tormenta invernal que se acerca a nuestra área con la aplicación del tiempo de Telemundo Delmarva, disponible para Apple y Android.