T H E E X A M I N ER24 SU N DAY, NOV E M BER 22 , 2009
By Topper Shutt
For The Examiner
I do not have any snow in the fore-
cast just yet but VDOT has already
conducted their snow removal
drills. In the old days most of the
folks driving those big trucks with
plows were employees of the state
or county and they lived close to
their truck and salt depot but now
over half are private contractors liv-
ing as far away as West Virginia and
Pennsylvania.
In Northern Virginia alone there
is 15,000 lane miles of roadways.
The Springfield mixing bowl has 47
ramps with more on the way. Vir-
ginia out sources 100 percent of its
snow removal, so county officials
need five hours of lead time to mobi-
lize these private contractors.
In Maryland, around the "bar
bell," which includes Interstate 495
up to the Baltimore Beltway is 17,000
lane miles of roadways. Maryland
outsources about seventy percent of
it snow removal contractors.
Fairfax County has 195 schools
with 170,000 students. The school
year is scheduled for 183 days with
three built in snow days. The kids
have to go to school a minimum of
180 days. Officials like to make the
call the night before but more than
likely the call will be made around
4:30 AM.
Removing snow
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