CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The weather forecast is calling for another mild week in West Virginia and the state Division of Highways is using the good weather to prepare for snow and ice.
DOH District 1 Maintenance Engineer Kathy Rushworth spoke with reporters at a DOH garage in North Charleston Monday about the agency’s preparations.
“We’re fortunate that here in almost mid-November we have a week of 60-degree weather but we prepared our trucks and made sure we had all of our salt bins full in October,” Rushworth said.
The DOH has 231,000 tons of snow ready for statewide distribution this winter. Rushworth said Region 1, which includes Kanawha, Boone, Clay, Putnam and Mason counties, has 14 maintenance garages, more than 100 trucks and 250 employees who will be involved with snow removal and ice control this winter.
“We just want to make sure that all of our equipment is ready, we have the materials we need and that our equipment is ready,” she said.
The agency also wanted to use Monday’s event as a reminder to motorists that they too should get ready for winter driving.
“It’s probably going to take you longer to get to your destination, so allow more time, make sure your vehicle is in good shape and just plan ahead and plan accordingly for the driving conditions you’re going to encounter,” Rushworth said.
As for now, there’s no sign of snow.
“I’ve looked at our forecast out through November 26th (Thanksgiving Weekend) and I don’t see any storms of concern, so we’ll keep our trucks stripped down and we’ll haul asphalt and stone for other maintenance activities,” Rushworth said.