DOT officials speak on preparations ahead of 2nd winter storm
Uh good morning
My name's Jen McNeil with the Department of Transportation
I'm the division maintenance engineer for Division 5
We cover the counties of Durham and Wake Counties going
north up into Person Granville Vance Warren and and Franklin
as well
Uh we're preparing for another winter event that's going to
be coming into tonight
Uh but at the same time we're still in operations
from the last storm that we had last weekend
That storm went well
We made some good progress early on as the temperatures
coming out of the storm are right about freezing and
had some warming on Monday
But we still do have icy spots that we're continuing
operations on
In addition to ongoing operations we started brining two days
ago
Today we have about 320,000 gallons of brine on the
roads and those operations are starting to eat our end
as we prepare for this next winter event
Right now we're hearing this event is going to be
Uh and not like last one there's not much of
a threat of ice which is is is good news
um but we are looking at 468 and maybe more
inches of snow um through the region um
That's that's a So that'll be a full snow event
Also it's going to be colder in this event when
the snow's coming down
We're looking at temperatures a high tomorrow at 21 and
then couple that with high winds we're hearing gusts potential
of maybe 30 35 miles an hour depending on where
you're at through the division
Um with 30 to 35 mile an hour gusts we
do have that potential for downed trees and we will
have a few cut and shove crews available ready to
respond
The operations will
Push Pushing operations will start tonight and go on a
24 hour basis
We have similar to last time roughly 135 DOT plow
trucks and an additional 145 contract trucks that we'll be
using in this operation as well as probably 50 to
60 heavy pieces of equipment everything from front end loaders
to motor graders that can handle deeper snows if we
get some locally higher amounts in certain areas
The the biggest concern for us right now is is
driver fatigue
Uh we have been going strong since not Tuesday but
last Tuesday with uh brining operations and then into snowing
And then uh all through this week
So today we're giving our most of our operator has
a chance to take a break and and and that's
why you don't see a lot of activity behind us
as we're we're resting up because we know we're going
to go into a couple more days of this
Um snow coming in tonight uh going through into Sunday
morning um so and then recovery thereafter
Questions for me
What's it like when you're still cleaning up from a
previous storm and already having to start planning for the
next one Yeah you know last we had several years
there with nothing and now we're we're back to back
long duration events
Um it's it's a marathon and you have to to
systematically go about it but also know that you have
to keep a little bit back and so that we
can keep on going through the marathon
So it's
It's been a long run but we're we're ready
We have a lot of good staff that are that
are extremely dedicated and hardworking
Uh our contract staff has has been right there with
us the whole time
Uh great efforts by everybody in this last storm and
we're getting ready to go again
As a follow up to that question
Most of these roads are cleared but you do have
some secondary roads that have an ice accumulation
What challenges do you potentially foresee if you don't have
those completely clear yourself some ice on the ground now
you're adding potentially inches of snow
It's it's the same as if we it wasn't there
uh you know we we we're
It's going to be a cold event
It's going to be a cold snow and cold a
couple of days thereafter
It's the same challenge
It's it's getting the material out on the primary highways
first and the interstate highways first getting them clear going
to the major secondaries working your way through there before
you get into the rest of the system
Kind of a little more encouraging looking in the forecast
is Wednesday Thursday
We're looking at temperatures in the 40s and that's going
to be helpful um but there is also a chance
of snow in there uh but I'm more comfortable with
a little bit of snow and 40 degree weather than
I am a lot of snow and 20 degree weather
so it's going to be a marathon but we'll keep
on working through it
So you don't see
No I don't
You know every time every single time we start hearing
they're not cleaning my road
Why are they not cleaning We talked a little bit
about how it's it's so important that you get the
main thoroughfares and the emergency routes to the hospital
Facilities like that
Yes the primary thing is to be able to restore
traffic through the area and then into the into the
communities on our main routes that allows emergency services fire
trucks EMS food deliveries to the grocery stores to continue
on and get to where they need to be
If you can't get out of your if you can
get out of your neighborhood but you can't go anywhere
it's really not helpful
So we we focus on the on the infrastructure the
main infrastructure first and then work into the rest of
the network
This past storm we ended up bringing in 18 small
wheelbase dump trucks from Division 3 and Division 6
They weren't impacted to the extent that we were and
they were a great help in getting us deeper into
the subdivision system earlier than we've been
Um so that that was a great help and we
appreciate all their efforts in coming up
If anyone has any questions about roads in their areas
you know not being taken care of is there a
way that they can reach out to NCDOT And also
with that how can they differentiate between uh roads that
are you know treated by NCDOT and roads that should
be treated by you know the municipal municipalities
The uh we we have you can go to our
website and there's a place to to that you can
use called Contact Us that we monitor
Um we also have a phone line I believe that
I don't recall that right off the top of my
head the phone number
Um
Uh it's on the website and here's what I said
to the media yesterday
I think I may have even told Michael is that
there is um you can Google state-maintained roads
There's a link and I sent it to Spectrum
I can send it to you guys
Basically uh there's a big diff you know we don't
maintain every road so we are clearing our maintain our
roads that we need to maintain but the municipal
Localities people are just going to need to reach out
to them too and and and look at that map
Like I I don't know what to say
It's very difficult to to tell every single person calling
or needing to know why their road hasn't been cleared
It isn't always the DMT's road so I can send
everyone the link and and give it to your assignment
editors
Don't send them to me because I don't have time
to look up every road
Please tell me
You mentioned the impact of of wind
Can you speak a little bit uh to that in
terms of is that just more on a driver perspective
Is that just on the placement of where the snow
blowing towards What impact does it have on the roads
in particular I know you mentioned power
Has it had any impact on on the roads The
I'm sorry I didn't hear the first part
You mentioned wind
Oh wind yes yes um wind
The big thing with the wind is the potential of
trees coming down
Whenever that happens we we have crews on standby that
can go out and cut the trees move it back
to the white line and reopen up the lanes
It's a complicating piece and and
Part of what it is is we try not to
let roads close
Um so sometimes some storms we have it where there's
still a lot of folks out on the roads if
it comes in at the end of end of a
workday
And if we start seeing breakdowns and then start seeing
backups and people can't go and then we can't get
there to put the material down and to plow to
keep things moving it becomes complicated
Fortunately with this one we're coming in on a Saturday
and following up with a Sunday
Those are much helpful very helpful in that we don't
have the complicating traffic to work through
Is the snow I guess blowing onto the roads anywhere
there like if you're going through and clearing and then
it's just windy so the snow gets blown on again
is that you foresee that a problem at all or
is that ever an issue It can be an issue
Um lots of snow blowing around
It can be challenging but we're going to be out
on our main primaries through the duration of the event
um and through some of the higher wind speeds and
by the time we're ready to move off of that
that initial focus uh winds should be dying down
So I I think we're going to have a clean
event
Uh it's gonna be a lot of work a lot
of time
Um our our crews are ready to go
The uh but we just hope everybody uh stays home
Um tomorrow is not gonna be a particularly nice day
but Sunday uh with some snow on the ground and
sunny there's gonna be a lot of temptation to come
out
Um please avoid uh being out on the roads if
you don't have to be uh and we'll we'll systematically
work at reopening everything
Are there any obstacles or Oh I was just going
to say are there any obstacles that people should be
aware of that you know maybe pose a threat to
you all plowing the roads whether that be like street
parking or people's trash cans or stuff like that Yeah
it's best if you can not park in the roadways
um particularly in areas that have a uh once we
get into the residential subdivisions uh if folks can park
in their driveways it allows us to be able to
access and clear easier um and with less risk to
our drivers as well as the cars alongside
You guys have been at this for a while now
How do you and not just
Sorry I'm sick
We have a tremendous workforce
Uh a lot of our staff interestingly enough are volunteer
firemen
They're they're working in the EMS
They're involved in their communities
They're very community focused and they want to be here
Uh I I just can't say enough of our staff
They they come in storming
After storm ready to go get ready to give it
their all um and a lot of places we're we're
trying we have to pull them back you know take
a break walk get out of the truck walk around
um take and have we made some chili for them
last time here and uh take it take and pace
yourself
This is going to be a long event
So great group of staff to work with um we're
ready to go
We spoke to the town of Perry
They have technology to kind of track road temperatures get
a better understanding of the impact they're seeing
Is there any technology that NCDOT uses to that degree
And and if so why is it so important for
your team to be tracking those road temperatures in particular
I know you said it's gonna be a very cold
storm
It's most important for us
The road temperatures are critical whenever you're placing brine
Uh what we don't want to do is place brine
when the road temperatures are low enough that it actually
might freeze
Um
That's our primary look and we have sensors that can
do that
When it comes to actually plowing operations that's less critical
for us
It's more of a material management and being systematic and
crew placement and staying with it through the duration
I have a question that was asked to me by
WRAL this morning and I think it's worth you all
at least hearing from Doug because I was gonna ask
him on the side you know if we see 2
to 4 inches
How is the difference between 2 to 4 inches and
6 to 10 inches clearing the roads when it comes
to not only effort but time The
A lot of it has to do with the duration
that the snow comes down
Um we're we're you're going to be actively working over
an extended period of time
Whether you're pushing 4 inches or 6 inches or 8
inches it's not a tremendous difference until you get up
to about 1 ft of snow and then you uh
it's harder for our trucks to go and it becomes
more of a motor grader event
And also when you're you're working with 4 or 5
lanes of an interstate and and you're working it systematically
across the road to get it off to the shoulder
it gets heavier and heavier as you take it across
And so having 8 inches of snow versus 4 inches
of snow can be a complicating issue on major multi-lane
roads
Um Once you get into the secondary system it's it's
not as critical
Thank you
Myself
Anything else Can we come to the chili party You
can bring things
It's good chili
All right thank you
OK then