Not only did Mother Nature slam Central Pa with several inches of snow, the conditions after the snow, made road treatment a difficult task.
Dallastown Borough employees worked through the night as the storm hit, but seemed to make little progress. Wind and frigid temperatures, combined with the fluffy snow, created a nightmare for workers trying to clear roadways.
Wind gusts tossed snow right back onto cleared roads. “It’s picking up the light snow and putting it back where we plowed it away. So we need to do that again. It’s a continuous type thing,” said Dallastown Borough employee Lonnie Barnhart.
Barnhart said the frigid temperatures haven’t helped either. Below 20 degrees salt treatments aren’t as effective. “It actually will melt down through the ice, but with the cold temperatures they will freeze right over top,” said Barnhart.
PennDOT crews handle all state roads. They dealt with the same issues, their biggest concern is snow drifts. “There are areas where literally 20 to 30 minutes go by and it looks like we weren’t even there,” said Michael Martin with York County PennDOT. Because of the temperatures they used a modified salt mixture. “We have a mixture, especially in the areas that are drifting. We add anti-skid to that to give the vehicles come traction.”
“In the areas that are drifting that is our major concern right now. You might be driving along a perfectly wet road and all of a sudden you are in zero visibility and literally hitting a wall of snow. The biggest thing is just to slow down,” said Martin.
Both Dallastown Borough and PennDOT York County will have crews on throughout Friday evening.