In anticipation for winter weather, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has directed state agencies to pre-deploy winter storm response assets. The National Weather Service is forecasting freezing rain and up to half an inch of ice in certain areas.
The New York State Department of Transportation has its snow, ice, and tree/debris equipment ready to deploy, including 1,596 large plow trucks, 181 medium-duty plows, 52 tow plows, 326 large loaders, 75 chippers, 37 traffic signal trucks, and 15 bucket trucks.
Grapples will be installed on loaders stationed in areas of potential icing that are not engaged in salt loading operations. Chippers will be hitched to medium-duty response vehicles. The DOT will have all traffic signal crews statewide ready to deploy if there are areas with a high number of signal outages.
All DOT facilities will be staffed for 24/7 operations, and fleet mechanics in affected areas will be staffing all main facilities 24/7 to perform repairs and keep trucks on the road.
The Thruway Authority has 691 operators and supervisors ready to deploy, as well as 241 large snowplows, 108 medium snowplows, 11 tow plows, and 62 loaders across the state with more than 118,000 tons of road salt on hand.
The New York State Police will be ready to deploy additional personnel to affected areas as needed. All four-wheel drive vehicles are in-service and all specialty vehicles, including snowmobiles and utility vehicles, are staged and ready for deployment.
