MDOT SHA's annual 'Snow Show' in Hagerstown showcased snow removal plans and equipment for the 2024/2025 winter season. The district, covering Garrett, Allegany, and Washington counties, has extensive snowfall preventative measures in place, including anti-icing, de-icing, and advanced equipment. Training for staff includes in-house lessons and state-wide sessions to ensure preparedness.
CEG photo
Each year, SHA shares snow removal plans and displays and demonstrates the equipment available for the looming winter season.
October marks time for the annual "Snow Show" for the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (SHA) District 6. This year, it took place in Hagerstown on Oct. 24, 2024.
Each year, SHA shares snow removal plans and displays and demonstrates the equipment available for the looming winter season.
Photo courtesy of MDOT SHA
The SHA owns and maintains all non-toll, numbered roads in Maryland's 23 counties. The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) maintains Maryland's toll facilities.
MDOT SHA's overall budget for winter 2024/2025 is $69 million.
District 6 includes Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties — these are the three western counties in the state and the district receives the most snow.
In fact, flurries were already reported in Garrett County on one occasion earlier in the month.
In Garrett County, last year's snowfall totaled 153 in. In the 2022-23 year, 122.8 in. were reported and in the 2021-22 year, 126.5 in.
Allegany County received 56.8 in. of snow last year, 64.26 in. in the 2022-23 year and 64 in. in 2021-22.
Washington County received 33.8 in. of snow last year, 16.5 in. in the 2022-23 year and 31.6 in 2021-22.
Numerous strategies are used depending on the circumstance to handle the snow. They include anti-icing, de-icing, liquid salt brine and loader scales. Material selection can be adjusted depending on the road and weather conditions.
At SHA's disposal is rock salt that can melt snow from 20 F and above and salt brine that is dispersed prior to a snowfall. Solar salt is known as a cleaner product and is used to make the brine.
Garrett County has reported a decrease in its salt usage by 50 to 75 percent over the past six years.
In the state, more than 200 pieces of equipment are available for snow events. These include 67 single dump trucks, 27 loaders and seven blowers. The fleet also includes 600 truck-mounted saddle tanks, 310 wing plows, 38 truck/trailer mounted liquid applicator spray tanks, 15 salt brine makers, two tow plows, four dual-wing plows and 23 quad-axle trucks. In addition, there are 78 non-invasive road sensors and 105 Mobile Advanced Road Weather Information Sensors (MARWIS).
The state has 386,000 tons of rock salt in 86 salt facilities, 1.6 million gal. of salt brine at 77 sites, 40,000 tons of abrasives (sand and crushed stone) and 100,000 gal. of magnesium chloride at 16 sites.
District 6 maintains more than 1,900 lane mi. in total and winter operation planning is a continuous process. There are more than 150 hired contractors in addition to the SHA staff.
Photo courtesy of MDOT SHA
In Garrett County, SHA covers 513 lane mi. There are seven barns/domes, 25,000 tons of salt, 42,000 gal. capacity for salt brine and 24,000 tons of aggregate/abrasives.
The main shop is located at Keyser's Ridge, with satellite shops located in Oakland, Swanton, Frostburg and Red House.
In Allegany County, SHA covers 605 lane mi. There are six barns/domes with 20,410 tons of salt, 68,000 gal. of salt brine and 3,300 tons of aggregate/abrasives. The main shop is located in LaVale, with satellite shops in Frostburg, Cumberland, Westernport, Little Orleans and Oldtown.
In Washington County, SHA covers 788 lane mi. The are six barns/domes with 21,600 tons of salt, 66,000 gal. of salt brine and 420 tons of aggregate/abrasives. The main shop is in Hagerstown, with satellites in Parkhead, two locations in Hagerstown, Smithsburg and Boonsboro.
According to Todd Dewitt, assistant resident maintenance engineer, all trucks are big-bore trucks, with standard transmissions.
"Everything we have is retrofitted with a right wing," he said. "Twelve-foot plows, they're plowing a 10-foot surface with an eight-foot wing, which is probably catching an additional six feet."
Crews are trained to plow in trains on the freeways. All of the roads are cut down into specific sections, so they all have turnaround points.
In Garrett County, DeWitt said that there is one blower on each end of the county, as well as one loader blower on each end, one grader on each end and one Oshkosh on each end.
"We can pretty well maintain both ends of the county depending on where we go," he said.
In times of need, equipment can be sent statewide to help out with larger jobs.
"Big equipment … we take that out when it's needed," DeWitt said. "I try not to put it out when it's extremely cold, because it's hard on the equipment. It also depends on traffic volume and the type of storm."
He added that the Oshkosh is a four-wheel drive truck with a plow on the front and a wing on the side.
"Typically, we use that during major blizzard events, so if we start to lose roads, we're not going to lose the road," he said. "I'll send somebody out. They'll push and wing back with that big truck — we'll put weight in the bed of it. It's like a mega truck, basically. It takes two people to operate it. We don't usually lose road during the daytime hours because you have the sun on your side. It's more at night."
DeWitt said that the loader blowers have the same principle, mounting on the front of the loader. It has its own self-contained engine and it blows snow just like a normal blower does.
Employee training includes in-house lessons from veteran employees, a state-wide training team and book training. All new employees, including temporaries, attend Snow College, and every five years, veterans go back through as a refresher.
Photo courtesy of MDOT SHA
This involves a two-day course administered by the state training team.
"District 6 is well on our way in preparations for the upcoming winter season," said George Walker, assistant district engineer of maintenance, who oversees all maintenance in all three counties. "We have plenty of materials on hand and we are working diligently to get our fleet prepared. We are running test routes, preparing, inspecting and testing our fleet and ensuring that our staff is prepared and trained to handle anything that nature sends or way."
He added that SHA is using the latest innovations that are available, from forecasting to equipment. He also said that contract forces are prepared to aid the crew as they always do.
"We appreciate the invaluable partnership that we have with them," Walker said. "We are committed to keeping our roadways as safe as possible to ensure that our customers' experience on our roadways is a pleasant one for this upcoming winter season. We ask for your patience and cooperation during winter operations to allow us the ability to do our jobs effectively, efficiently, and safely."
SHA Strategies for Winter Operations
- Anti-Icing — In the days prior to a winter storm, SHA applies salt brine to the pavement, which prevents snow and ice from initially bonding to the pavement. SHA is expanding its anti-icing operations to lessen salt usage throughout Maryland. Salt brine, which is 23.3 percent salt and 76.7 percent water, is produced at 15 SHA maintenance facilities. SHA will not pretreat highways with salt brine if a winter storm is forecasted to start as rain as this will wash the salt brine solution off the pavement.
- De-icing — This is the traditional winter maintenance strategy of applying rock salt. Rock salt requires more material to break the bond than to prevent it. Salt is the primary material used to treat pavement in snow or ice operations. In colder areas or for a thicker snowpack on the road, crews can add magnesium chloride or "Liquid Mag" to rock salt or salt brine during extremely cold temperatures to enhance salt's effectiveness.
- Liquid Salt Brine-Only or Direct Liquid Application (DLA) Snow Routes — This consists of a designated snow route that only uses a salt brine solution to prevent the snow and ice from bonding to the pavement. Unlike anti-icing, which takes place prior to a winter storm, this strategy is performed for the duration of the storm. SHA has approximately 400 lane mi. of brine-only snow routes throughout its seven engineering districts. When compared to snow routes using granular rock salt as the main snow-fighting compound, the brine-only routes not only perform at or above the expected level of service but use far less salt.
- Loader Scales — SHA has purchased a total of 26 loader scales that are mounted on SHA loaders at salt facilities. The scales accurately capture the precise amount of salt being loaded for distribution onto Maryland roadways. This allows SHA to accurately control the storage, handling, application and recovery of dispensed granular salt and reduce overall salt usage. SHA also uses hired contract loaders, with scales, at multiple locations throughout the state.
- Rubber Plow Blade with Ceramic Inserts — The rubber/ceramic blades are superior to steel blades from both a performance and efficiency perspective. These newer plow blades move more snow from the roadway, which results in less salt to treat the road during plowing operations. To meet the demands of operators, SHA placed a bulk order for the hybrid blades this winter season to ensure enough resources are on hand for each facility.
- Winter Operations Training — Twenty percent of maintenance personnel are required to attend Snow College each year. SHA's goal is to train 100 percent of employees at least once every five years. This winter will focus on the negative and lasting impacts that salt has on the infrastructure. Past data obtained with winter training was so beneficial it led to the creation of a best practices document that was distributed statewide. This statewide/virtual initiative will be a staple in salt-reduction tactics for years to come. CEG
Brenda Ruggiero
Brenda Ruggiero has written for CEG for over 20 years. She lives near the town of Accident in far western Maryland. Her favorite assignments so far involved interviews with Survivor’s Boston Rob and hot dog eating champion Joey Chestnut. Both were involved in construction at one time.
Brenda holds a BA in Mass Communication with a writing focus from Frostburg State University and minors in Public Relations and Political Science. She works full time as a staff writer for a weekly newspaper, the Garrett County Republican. She enjoys feature writing the most, which gives her the opportunity to talk to people and share their stories.
Brenda and her middle school sweetheart, Reuben, have been married for over 34 years and have three grown children and four cats.
Read more from Brenda Ruggiero here.
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