Snow is coming our way, which means you’ll see more plow trucks out on the roads. Now, you can also track them online.
Wondering if the roads have been salted or plowed recently? PennDOT has you covered.
“Click on the little area that says plow trucks and you can see where there are plow trucks in your area that are located on interstates and expressways,” said PennDOT District 9 spokeswoman Tara Henry.
You can see the more than 500 PennDOT plow trucks and more than 200 contracted rental trucks on the 511PA website or on your phone.
“They can see where their plow has been within the last two hours,” Henry said. “What is does is it gives a bread crumb trail of where that truck’s been so they can see that that roadway has been treated.”
The Automated Vehicle Location system (AVL) was announced in October as part of Governor Wolf’s initiative to make PennDOT operations more efficient, saving around $1.4 million over the next four to six years.
Not every truck will be on the map, however.
“I would hope that, you know, this program will go further and we will be able to continue to add trucks as needed as the years progress,” Henry said. “The 700 trucks are spread across the entire state. Like I said, there are 40 within District 9.”
So before you hit the highway, you can check if PennDOT has taken care of it.