Along with the warm sun that is melting snow, State Highway Administration (SHA) and Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) crews are continuing to clear snow from highways across Maryland. SHA and MdTA remain out in force removing snow using front end loaders and large snow blowers along interstate shoulders, ramps and the area between mainline highways and ramps. Crews are also working on primary and secondary roads as well as park and ride lots to clear as much snow today as possible. SHA will salt roadways to prevent ice from forming after sunset when temperatures drop.
Governor Martin O’Malley again visited SHA’s Emergency Operations Center near BWI Marshall Airport to assess road conditions, transit operations and airport services. Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley, SHA Administrator Neil J. Pedersen, Transit Administrator Ralign Wells and BWI Administrator Paul Wiedefeld joined him for a media briefing. The Governor mentioned that SHA’s website, which received 1.69 million hits, was the “most popular website in the state,” even more so than a shopping website just five days before Christmas.
Additionally, the Governor participated in a statewide conference call with SHA and MdTA operations managers, thanking them and their teams for the excellent and continued work on the highways. He was especially pleased with the efforts to clear roads leading to M and T Stadium for the many Ravens fans headed downtown for the game. He implored drivers to use caution at intersections as crews work to clear snow in vehicles that will be often stopped or moving very slowly.
Since Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Anne Arundel counties received the greatest snow accumulations, SHA redeployed larger equipment from Western Maryland for use in these areas. Crews will remain out throughout the evening and night, continuing clean up efforts prior to Monday morning’s rush hour. Motorists need to be extremely cautious, particularly near plow trucks as some may have an extra “wing blade” on the right hand side. Drivers should stay behind and never pass snow plows or plow trains (multiple snow plows in tandem moving snow from left to right). The untreated road is ahead of the plow and the plowed, treated highway is behind, so “Don’t Crowd the Plow.”
Citizens can monitor road conditions by logging on to www.roads.maryland.gov and clicking on “CHART,” which stands for the Coordinated Highway Action Response Team. The CHART website offers a treasure trove of travel information, snow emergency plans, real-time traffic camera views, weather information, average travel speed maps and incident-related road closure reports. Motorists can also call the Winter Storm Hotline at 1-800-327-3125 for winter weather road closures, or monitor radio and TV stations for road related information.