Times Observer photo Snow will fly soon enough. PennDOT is readying its trucks for plowing season.

It’s easy to look out the window on a snowy day and wonder where the plows are.

But there’s a lot that goes into the truck you see on the roadway.

In fact, that process is already underway.

“Our fleet should be half set up by the end of the day,” Elms said on Friday at a winter maintenance meeting held at the Allegheny National Forest headquarters. “By the end of the month, 100 percent has to be ready.”

Elms outlined all that goes into the plow that you see on the road.

For this year, Elms said that plow shifts will be moved from 4 a.m. to noon back an hour to 3 a.m.

“Our biggest complaint from operators (is they) can’t get to a hill or route before the school bus,” he said. “Hopefully it gives us another hour to get ahead of it.”

Another effort they’ve undertaken is a “focus on our route priorities.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean bare roads.

Elms outlined three levels of priority for the county’s roadways.

The first priority roads in the county – Rt. 6 and 62 – are places where they “need to see some wheel tracks. That’s our goal.”

He said those are the roadways with 500 to 1,000 or more cars per day.

The next tier – priority two roadways including Rts. 27, 36, 59, 66, 69 and 666 – have a goal of “hard pack, snow covered. That’s our goal.”

In addition to the priority system, Elms said that “local traffic patters also set priorities,” explained that many of the operators live in the area and know of any occasions or events when additional plowing is needed.

Elms addressed plowing on weekends and said that crews aren’t scheduled to work on the weekend.

“It’s a call-in time,” he said, which means it is based on conditions on the county’s roadways.

Logistically, Elms said Warren has 50 plow operators that run two shifts – 3 a.m. to 11 .am. and noon to 8 p.m. – with 28 trucks over 23 routes.

He explained that a typical route includes 45 snow lane miles and, in normal conditions, takes two to three hours driving at 25 mph.

But when they’re functioning a man down, there are mechanical problems or the snow is particularly strong, that route can take over four hours.

That can be the difference between getting around the route once versus twice in a single shift.

And 25 mph is the top speed.

“If he goes any faster, he doesn’t do a very good job,” Elms said. “Logistically, sometimes it’s not physically possible to get around. (We) could hire more people, but more trucks.”

But that’s limited by financial constraints.

“It doesn’t take long for things to get out of whack,” Elms acknowledged.

“We preach hills, curves and intersections,” he added. “We give them a target spread rate.”

That spread rate can change “based on the storm they see” as they might not put anything down if storming two to three inches an hour “because it won’t do anything” or put more than suggested down in problem areas.

Once the plows are on the road and the snow is falling, real-time locations of plows on Warren County’s roads are available at 511pa.com.