VDOT News - Salem

SALEM – With a winter weather event forecasted to bring western Virginia a mixture of rain and snow starting Saturday, Feb. 6, crews and contractors with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) are gearing up to work in 12-hour shifts to plow and treat roads this weekend.

Motorists are urged to monitor weather forecasts, avoid driving during the height of the storm and consider postponing travel until conditions improve.

Because the weather event is expected to start as rain and transition to snow, road crews will not pretreat roads ahead of this event as applied brine would wash off. VDOT is monitoring the forecast and may pretreat in selected areas if the forecast changes and conditions allow.

Drivers are reminded of the following:

• VDOT’s first priority in any winter weather event is plowing the interstates and primary roads (those numbered 1-599) and high volume secondary roads. Snowplow operators will be making multiple passes over these major routes and will not plow low-volume secondary roads or neighborhood streets (those numbered 600 and above) until the precipitation stops and progress is made on the main roads.
  
  
• VDOT asks that residents avoid parking on the street or in cul-de-sacs because vehicles in the street can block plows and slow down snow removal operations when crews begin working on neighborhood streets.
  
  
• VDOT does not plow snow on private roads or driveways. When snow accumulates, residents are encouraged to shovel driveways to the right when facing the roadway to reduce how much snow a plow pushes back into a driveway as it passes.

Real-time road condition information for Virginia roads is available at www.511Virginia.org. 

The Salem District includes the counties of Bedford, Botetourt, Carroll, Craig, Floyd, Franklin, Giles, Henry, Montgomery, Patrick, Pulaski, and Roanoke.

Information in VDOT news releases was accurate at the time the release was published. For the most current information about projects or programs, please visit the project or program Web pages. You may find those by searching by keyword in the search Virginia DOT box above.