NEW YORK — We have had a lot of great weather lately and snow is the farthest thing from our minds, but in the not too distant future we'll be dealing with winter weather on the roads. So the New York State Transportation Department (NYSDOT) is getting ready ahead of the winter season.
On Monday the agency gave 2 On Your Side a look at their preparations.
The NYSDOT has been adding to the fleet and now has 181 plow trucks ready to clear Western New York roadways, plus a few reserves in case any of them go down.
"And then we also have five tow plows, which is a traditional snowplow that has an attachment which is a hydraulic plow that swings out and it allows our drivers to plow two lanes of road at the same time," said Susan Surdej, NYSDOT regional spokesperson for Western New York. "So traditionally we reserve those for expressways in snow belt areas like 219, 400."
The NYSDOT spokesperson says the goal is to always have everything ready before the start of November, which is generally the month when we get our first snowfall of more than an inch.