NYSDOT working to keep roads as clear as possible

The New York State Department of Transportation is working around the clock to keep the roadways as clear as possible.

D-o-t regional spokesperson about how they prepared for the first big storm of the season.

She has that story from utica tonight.

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None standup -- "the snow is picking up here in utica.

The state dot has been preparing for this storm since monday.

The salt has been loaded and the trucks are ready to go."

"we started doing pretreating of the highways, getting all the machinery ready.

Making sure the maintenance is done.

As you can see, we're loading them up with salt, one of the other things we did in preparation is out the salt brine down in the roads so we've been doing that the last day or two."

D-o-t regional spokesperson jimmy piccola is no stranger to preparing for winter storms. he says there are plenty of trucks out to clean up.

"right now, it's just kind of waiting for the event to happen, and we'll react.

"this is considered the oneida east residency; in oneida county in this residency, we have 18 trucks that are dedicated their beats in this area."

As covid cases rise, the d-o-t has been taking extra precautions to make sure their drivers are healthy and able to treat the roads.

"we staff 24/7.

As different crews come in, the trucks are all sanitized make sure, right now we haven't had too many issues and if we need, we have backup plans to take care of it."

"all of our guys have been tested, we have enough guys here for this event."

With a lot of people working from home and many schools remote... there shouldn't be that much traffic on the roads... but if you do have to go out, just take it easy.

"during the event, if our folks are out there plowing, please give the plow some room because we want to take care of those roads and get you to where you want to go safely."

"if the roads are very bad, stay home if you can."

Caitlin irla, news channel 2.

> right now..the storm is