While Hardy County has seen only a light flurry of snow so far this year, the Division of Highways has been preparing for the worst of winter weather for some time.
“We start in October,” said Hardy County Assistant Supervisor Dorman Parker. “We mount the snow plows and cinder spreaders and make sure everything is working.”
After the operators are sure everything is in working order, the equipment is removed. It sits ready to be mounted again if there’s a forecast for bad weather.[private]
“We start the ‘weather watch’ on Nov. 1,” Parker said. “We have two guys who watch the weather overnight. If there’s any chance of anything falling, we put the equipment back on the trucks.”
Hardy County has 517 miles of roads and the DOH divides them into three categories, primary, secondary and third-level.
“The primary roads are Routes 220, 259, 55, 29 and 10,” Parker said. “Route 10, Rig Road, is a primary road because of the amount of traffic.”
Secondary roads are the remaining county roads. “It doesn’t matter if they’re gravel or hardtop,” Parker said.
The third-level roads used to be called orphan roads. They were roads originally constructed as subdivision roads, but not maintained. The state took responsibility for them several years ago. There are more than 15 miles of third-level roads in the county.
The Hardy County DOH has a crew of 35, an increase of four from last year. They also have three new trucks.
Hardy County has a good supply of salt, 500 tons more than last year. They have 1,800 tons in Moorefield and another 750 tons in Baker. “We also have 10,000 gallons of deicer,” Parker said.
The deicer, a salt brine, helps prevent the snow from sticking to the pavement. There is 5,000 gallons in Moorefield and 5,000 gallons in Baker.
“If they are predicting snow, we try to put the deicer down 24 hours in advance,” Parker said. “It buys us some time to get the trucks out because the snow doesn’t stick right away.”
Of course, all that is dependent on temperature and other weather conditions. If it’s raining, the deicer will just wash off the road surface.
None of these numbers include Corridor H-Route 48/55, which has its own maintenance crew, equipment and supplies.
Parker said he’s heard predictions that the winter will not be a good one. “Whatever it is, we’ll be ready,” he said.[/private]