To make sure the lights and heat come back on as quickly as possible, our Olympia-area maintenance road crews are out with utility crews, working traffic control for Puget Sound Energy and others repairing downed power lines.

Monday, the crews were working on the tree-lined back roads of south Thurston County between Olympia and Centralia. These were hard hit with snow and ice last week and when branches fell, they took with them power lines on roads like State Route 121 near Millersylvania State Park and SR 507 between Tenino and Centralia, plus many city and county roads.

So what does a flagger or pilot car have to do with getting the lights on? Holding that stop/slow sign or leading traffic through the same 1/4-mile route over and over may not seem to help get power back on, but it’s those vital tasks that allow utility crews up in that bucket truck get their job done faster and safer, and make sure drivers get around those crews and back home.

Where, hopefully, the heat will be on soon.

Here's a little winter acrostic and haiku for you from our very own, Jamie Holter:


WSDOT Says: Be ready

WSDOT
Weather: it changes, check the forecast and check it again later

Snow: means different things to different people. If you don’t like to drive in snow, then don’t.

Diapers: bring extras if you plan a long trip with your young kids. (Bring prescription drugs, too, if you need them.)

Oranges: just one of the tasty snacks you’ll want to have in your car in case you get stuck

Tires and tanks: make sure your tires are inflated and you have a full tank of gas

SAYS
Brakes, batteries, belts should all be in good working order before winter. Chains should be in your car.

Email updates let you know in advance what to expect on the road (wsdot.wa.gov/emailupdates)

Radio in your car is a great way to stay on top of changing weather conditions. News radio stations update traffic many times an hour.

Everyone can get home safely if we all prepare and plan ahead

All wheel drive. If you have it, that’s good. But everyone should carry chains. The only way you’ll cross the pass during intense snow storms

Driving too fast for conditions is the worst thing you can do in a snow or ice storm

Yakking on the phone: Don’t do it while you drive, it's illegal to do. We want you to make it home.

Haiku:
Traffic is building
Drivers leave before the storm
The snow rush is on

Share your winter haiku with us!

We are very lucky to have you. You pay attention, ask questions, offer opinions AND solutions. Many times, your letters, e-mails and phone calls bring up issues or questions and I think – you can’t be the only person who thinks that. So, we add information to our Web site or try some other way to get the info out to drivers.




This week, we got one of those e-mails. (I did edit a bit for spelling.) “I understand that two years ago you began a program of using salt on Eastern Washington roads. I drove to Pullman last December and I'm still dealing with the corrosion as the result of this one trip. Please let the appropriate officials know I believe the use of corrosive chemicals for road treatment should be stopped. Until the program is stopped you should let people know on your Web site which roads are actively being salted so they would have a chance to avoid those roads.”

One of our Maintenance Managers responded. “The traveling public and the freight industry will no longer tolerate the frequent closure of highways and the corresponding elevated accident rates that were associated with the previous philosophy of ‘sand and plow’. WSDOT will continue to test alternative products such as acetates and agricultural by-products which are thought to be less corrosive, but until such products are made more readily available, are less expensive, and have been fully tested for environmental impacts, we will continue to use the tried and true methods which have allowed us to provide the level of service the traveling public has come to expect.”

This response (and the more details I offer below) highlight what we do and how much emphasis we place on keeping state routes open during challenging winter conditions. But there are just a few things about winter that we just can’t control. One is the weather. There are very sophisticated weather forecasting systems, but sometimes, Mother Nature just throws a curve ball.

And number two is drivers. Today’s auto safety features save lives. But, you shouldn’t feel like you can drive through a snow storm as if it’s 60 degrees and sunny just because you have AWD, 4-wheel drive or advanced traction control. Unfortunately, we still see those drivers out there. And, when they cause a collision, it slows down everyone else.

For many of us, gone are the days when you car started to spin or slip a bit so you knew it was time to take it down a notch. So please, slow down and get to know your car a bit. How will you know when or if the traction control starts taking over? This, along with the weather outside the window, will help you know when it’s time to start slowing down. Don’t wait until you are in the ditch (or worse) before you realize you are going too fast.

And what do those anti-lock brakes sound like? A sudden loud sound coming from your car while you are trying to navigate through a snow storm can really wreck your concentration.

For those who would like a bit more background on the WSDOT Winter Road Maintenance program, here are some other highlights for the e-mail response:

• The salt program is much older than two years in Washington State. We've been using a Chemical Priority Program for several years with the goal of reducing sand use across the state.
• This program is statewide and is not confined to Eastern Washington.
• We use a variety of corrosion inhibited liquid chloride products including sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, and calcium chloride. We also use solid sodium chloride (rock salt) in combination with the inhibited liquids to form a wetted salt which acts more quickly and effectively on ice and snow.
• Any one of these liquid products along with solid salt is used on every state route to varying degrees, dependent on climate and elevation.
• The use of liquid and solid chloride products to manage ice and snow is practiced in nearly all snowbelt states and Canadian provinces.
• WSDOT is one of the few transportation agencies which requires that all liquid products be corrosion inhibited. As a member of the Pacific Northwest Snowfighters (PNS), WSDOT requires that liquid products be at least 70% less corrosive than straight sodium chloride. This is not to say that these products are totally non-corrosive. There will be some corrosive effects from the use of any chloride product, inhibited or not.
• We strongly feel that the ability to provide a superior level of service in winter outweighs the comparatively minor impacts of these products. The ability to drive from Ridgefield to Pullman in December is a case in point.

Also, please note the above outlines treatments on state highways maintained under WSDOT’s Winter Maintenance program. More links that describe the WSDOT Winter Program and the Pacific Northwest Snowfighters organization: www.wsdot.wa.gov/winter/, www.wsdot.wa.gov/winter/SnowIcePlan.htm, www.wsdot.wa.gov/partners/pns/.

While Western Washington's state highways have mostly returned to normal from the two-week winter blast, the snow just hasn't stopped in Eastern Washington. Close to 60 inches has fallen in the Spokane area, and most of it has not melted.

WSDOT regularly shifts resources around areas and regions. A good weather window in Western Washington allowed us to shift plows to Eastern Region for the next five days. We are shifting five plow trucks and 10 drivers from Olympic Region (two from Aberdeen and three from Tacoma) to Eastern Region to help with the snow removal efforts over there. The Olympic Region crews will be working for Eastern Region Area 1 Superintendent Gary Clemenson in Spokane. Two trucks left from Tumwater last night for the Spokane area. Three more left this morning from Tacoma.

On one level, moving trucks and drivers from one location to another around the state seems like it should be relatively straightforward. However, there are lots of details necessary to pull it off successfully. Just a few include outfitting the trucks, getting the drivers, changing out plow bits, adjusting the radio frequency, working out the details of who would meet them and where they would go once they got to Spokane. There were a host of other details.

Here are some photos of crews switching out the OR's rubber plow bits for steel bits to use in Eastern Region. A quick tidbit...we use rubber plow bits in most parts of Western Washington to protect raised pavement markers. They use recessed pavement markers in most parts of Eastern Washington.

We activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Olympia this morning as just one of the many steps we are taking to be prepared for this weekend's storm events. We are reporting travel alerts and road conditions for much of the state as it rolls in.

Some of our favorite sites to watch over the weekend:

1. Our own travel alerts and road conditions
2. Of course, National Weather Service - Seattle and Olympic Peninsula
2. Our own Twitter account
3. Twitter users are posting current condition reports by tagging their posts with #seatst.
4. Cliff Mass has a weather blog that has users also posting current conditions

Stay home if you can. If you must go anywhere be prepared before you go, blizzard-like conditions have been forecasted.

As you can see from Dustin's post - they are getting hit hard in the North Sound and it's moving south. It's been coming down hard in Olympia this morning and I hear from some friends down south that Centralia/Chehalis has snow and ice. And it's moving further south into Cowlitz and Clark counties.

Spokane is also getting hit hard. And it's going to be that way for a while. Snow and ice could come to the Seattle metro area later this afternoon. And the mountain passes could see two feet or more tonight. Bring chains.

If you are going out today, expect winter driving conditions. It doesn't matter where you are or where you are going. You will see snow and ice somewhere. Slow down.

Our crews are out treating, plowing, clearing. And we are watching the forecasts very close.

On the website, you can look at camera images and weather warnings across the state. This will give you a good idea of what the roadways look like. Please check them out. We have also been out getting some photos and video this morning. We'll update when possible. Enjoy - while sitting next to the fire with a cup of hot chocolate, if you can...