CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia Division of Highways says that their crews are prepared to handle the first statewide winter forecast of the year on Thursday into Saturday.
Eastern counties, McDowell, Wyoming, Upshur, Barbour, Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas, Webster, and Pocahontas, are under a winter storm warning, winter storm watch, or winter weather advisories through Saturday evening.
Joe Pack, P.E., WVDOH Chief Engineer of Operations says that every operator is assigned to perform road cleaning operations until every road is taken care of.
"Our operators are assigned to continue to perform SRIC operations until all roads are addressed, on a 24-hour, seven-day-per-weel basis," Pack said in a release from the department.
SRIC is the process that the department uses to clear off the roads in the winter for travelers. SRIC stands for snow removal and ice control.
The department, statewide, has a stockpile of more than 231,000 tons of salt and more than 1,000 snowplows to cover all 55 counties. A typical snowplow can carry 12 tons of salt which allows them to treat about 100 lane-miles of road, which turn is about a 50-mile stretch of two-lane road or about 25 miles of four-lane road.
All of the roads that are maintained by the department, and the West Virginia Parkways Authority are assigned a priority for snow removal. Interstates, expressways, national highway systems, and all other United States and West Virginia routes are considered priority one routes, which can also sometimes include high-traffic county routes. Priority two routes are bus routes that were not considered a priority one route. Priority three routes are the remaining routes that excludes park and forest routes which are considered priority four routes.
They start with the priority one routes and once they are done, they go onto the secondary routes in priority two and three. But if snow were to fall again, WVDOH operators would return to the priority one routes.
Pendleton, Pocahontas, Randolph, and Tucker counties have 9,410 tons of salt, 21 tandem trucks, 43 single axis trucks and additional equipment ready for SRIC operations this winter.
The Elkins area could see between six and 12 inches of snow through Saturday.
Barbour, Braxton, Gilmer, Lewis, Upshur, and Webster counties have 11,000 tons of salts, two dozen tandem trucks and 39 single axle trucks ready for SRIC. These areas are forecasted to see several inches of snow.
Jim Moore, P.E., District 9 Engineer said "Our crews are ready to roll and meet the demand of this winter storm. We conducted dry runs in our area in October."
District nine, which includes Nicholas County, Fayette, Greenbriar, Monroe and Summers, are expected to receive a foot of snow from Thursday into Saturday.
Lower elevations in West Virginia such as the Kanawha Valley and Ohio River areas may see an inch or two of snow.
For the latest updates and information on travel conditions visit the WV 511 website here.