PennDOT crews are preparing for 12-hour shifts and a marathon 2-days of clearing snowfall as a winter storm is expected to hit the area Wednesday.
"If you don't have to go out, please don't go out. This isn't the time to go look at the pretty snow and see what the weather looks like outside," said Fritzi Schreffler, PennDOT spokesperson.
PennDOT plans to focus its efforts on the interstates and pretreat secondary streets. Crews said pretreating secondary roadways will give them more time to focus on those major roadways to get ahead of the snowfall.
PennDOT has 310 department trucks at its disposal with around 40 rentals. It also has 124,000 tons of salt in the 8-county region of South Central Pennsylvania.
"We have the ability to extend some of the shifts. We're working in 12 hour shifts," said Schreffler.
Schreffler said the COVID-19 pandemic may actually assist crews in clearing the roads faster as more people are staying at home right now under the state's advisory and more children are attending cyber school.
"The only good thing for us is that it's keeping some of the congestion off the roads," said Schreffler.
Drivers will have up to 40-mile routes to cover.
PennDOT warns everyone if the snow falls quickly, that could cause accumulation on the roads until their crews are able to loop back around to the area.