Indiana, PA – With the winter season approaching in Western Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 10 which covers Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson counties is outlining their winter services, reminding motorists of safe winter driving practices, and highlighting online winter resources.

District 10 includes nearly 7,000 snow lane miles (miles of roadway that are plowed). There are 166 plow trucks, 40 loaders, 10 graders, 19 anti-icing trucks, and six Variable Speed Limit Signs (VSLs) in service throughout the district.

The Variable Speed Limit Signs (VSLs) are located along I-80 in Clarion and Jefferson counties at the approaches to the Emlenton, North Fork, and Kyle Lake Bridges. The VSLs display the normal speed limit unless visibility or winter weather conditions call for slower speeds. When speed limits are reduced, a yellow light at the top and bottom of the VSL will flash to ensure motorists are aware of the change.

“There is a lot that goes into being ready for winter weather," said District Executive, Brian Allen.  “We have been preparing our equipment, stocking our winter supplies and working with our staff to ensure we are ready for the season ahead."

Roadway Treatments
Throughout the winter months, weather reports and ground conditions are actively monitored to plan how to best treat each storm. Treatments may include salt brine, anti-skid, salt, or a combination of these materials. Treatments vary based on temperature, precipitation type and traffic volume.

• Salt brine is salt mixed with water and used in anti-icing operations. 
• Anti-skid is crushed limestone which helps to provide traction. 
• Salt is most effective at temperatures over 25 degrees and when it can be crushed and spread by traffic.  On higher-traffic roadways, salt is the primary material used.  While on lower-volume roadways, the amount of salt will be reduced, and anti-skid will be used. 
  

Roads will not be treated prior to a storm when a storm is predicted to start as rain, it will wash away the material, or when there is salt residue on the roadway from previous treatments. 

Winter Driving Tips
“Our primary goal is always the safety of our motorists and our staff," said Tina Gibbs, Community Relations Coordinator. “We will be ready for winter weather and encourage motorists to prepare themselves and their vehicles as well.  We work hard to keep roadways passable and safe, please help us keep roadways safe by using good winter driving practices so everyone gets to where they need to safely."

Motorists are reminded of ten winter driving tips:

1. Turn on your low beams, even during the daytime to make your vehicle more visible to other motorists.
2. Turn off the cruise control on snow covered, wet, or icy roads.  Cruise control provides constant power to your wheels.  In a situation where your wheels are spinning on wet, icy, or snow-covered roadways, you need to reduce power to regain control.
3. If the road looks wet but there is no splash coming from the car's tires ahead of you, it may be ice.
4. On packed snow, decrease your speed by half. On ice, slow your vehicle to a crawl. In both scenarios, motorists should leave more space than normal between you and the vehicle ahead.
5. Clear your vehicle of snow, ice, and dirt before starting to drive including the windows, hood, trunk, roof, headlights, taillights, and signals.
6. Always wear your seatbelt.
7. Stock your vehicles with a windshield brush/scraper, food, water, warm clothes, blankets, cell phone charger, a small snow shovel, and any specific needs such as baby supplies, medication, and pet supplies.
8. If you don't have to travel, stay home. 
9. If you do have to travel, be patient with other motorists and the snowplows. If snow is falling at one inch per hour and a plow route takes four hours to complete, there will be four new inches of snow on the roadway at the starting point once the plow begins their next pass on that route.
10. “Know Before You Go" by checking major roadway conditions at www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic alerts, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to live feed traffic cameras. Users can also find plow truck locations and details of when state-maintained roadways were last plowed. 511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional X alerts. 

For more information on PennDOT's winter preparations and additional winter-driving resources for motorists, visit the department's winter website.

Subscribe to PennDOT news in in Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson counties at www.penndot.pa.gov/District10.  Find additional PennDOT news on X, Facebook, and Instagram.

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