Western Pa. prepared as winter storm expected to bring several inches of snow

Channel 11 road with PennDOT Tuesday night as they loaded trucks with salt and got on their trucks to head out into the winter weather.

There are currently 65 crews on the roads.

Starting at 8 p.m., empty CDL-weighted trucks, tractors hauling double trailers, or empty tractors. passenger vehicles pulling trailers,  pick-up trucks, motorcycles and RVs will be restricted on Route 79, the Pa. Turnpike and Route 80.

City leaders confirmed this afternoon they have a two-prong strategy to treat the roadways, starting with salt trucks for the first couple of inches and switching to plows as the snow starts to stick.

Crews will be out until 8 p.m. Wednesday and 311 has extended its hours until 8 p.m. Tuesday.

"The temperatures will be near or above freezing, which will be helpful. But again, we want to remind folks tomorrow for the morning commute, it looks like it's going to be a sloppy commute. Just be prepared to add extra time to your commute tomorrow,” said Pittsburgh Chief Operations Officer Guy Costa.

Snow began falling in much of Allegheny County early this afternoon and will pick up tonight and overnight.

In Pittsburgh, crews are already taking action, salting roads and working 12-hour shifts around the clock.

"We need to make sure the plows are attached and the plows are put on. We're going to treat it with salt up to two inches and then from two inches and above it will be a plowing operation,” Costa saisd.

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One thing helping crews is the warmer weather over the last few days, which is why snow isn't sticking to the roads in some areas just yet.

"The temperatures are going to be in our favor so it may take a couple of hours before snow starts laying on the roadways. That would give us some time to treat the streets,” Costa said.

Plows clearing snow will undoubtedly have an impact on the city's pothole issue.

Costa said the city started using a hot mix to repair potholes this week, which is expected to be a much stronger repair and hold up against the snow plows.

Fourteen trucks are out on the roads now as a precaution against falling temperatures. The township is planning on an early-morning report to get ahead of rush hour Wednesday morning and will handle callouts if needed.

Roads are wet in Uniontown off of route 51. Most of the day they've seen a light drizzle off and on with some scattered snow flakes at one point when a band of snow came through Hopwood it caused a major problem.

PennDOT had to shut down the eastbound lane of US40 (Summit Mountain) between Hopwood and Jumonville Road near the Summit Inn after multiple tractor trailers got stuck on the steep hill.

Uniontown High School was dismissed early at 12:30 p.m. today because of the weather, rolling buses early in the afternoon and trying to get students home safely.

A lot of families interested tonight to see what the school districts across Fayette and Washington counties will decide to do for the morning.

The next round of snow is expected to hit Fayette County until around 3 a.m.

Public Works crews have already pretreated the roads in South Park. All members of the department are on-call to respond.

Snow expected on the first day of spring means hardware stores have a variety of things for sale.

Channel 11 was at the Busy Beaver in Washington where they have rock salt alongside their Easter flowers.

The Busy Beaver off of Chestnut Street is still having to sell its winter items on the first day of spring as snow lingers in the forecast.

“We've had a rather unique month with March you know we've tried to transition into spring, the weather is not cooperating so we have a mixture of Easter flowers, gas grills and also rock salt and ice melter which is still popular this morning because of the storm,” said Mike Monath, the general manager of Busy Beaver in Washington.

The manager says they expect to sell rock salt and ice melter rapidly on Tuesday as folks prepare for the weather.

Washington Public Works director told Channel 11 they have five crews with trucks filled with salt and are ready to go on a moment's notice.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike in both lanes was brought to a crawl Tuesday afternoon in Donegal Township.

Investigators said a semi-truck jack knifed crashed into a barrier and the truck's driver was taken away in an ambulance.

Turnpike officials say there were a number of accidents on the turnpike between New Stanton and the Somerset Interchange forcing them to order drivers to slow down until this spring snow storm lets up

“We reduced the speed limit to 45 miles per hour this morning between the Ohio line and Breezewood. Traffic was asked to travel to 45 mph,” said Renee Vid Colborn, the public information manager – west at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Crews are now preparing for the second round of snow. They have 200 plow trucks on the roadways and they're tossing down salt and anti-skid as the temperatures drop.