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The State Highway 'Department said recently that plana are being made for what it hopes will he the cleanest Wintef on record. While hoping for a mild one, engineers still are preparing for the worst eventuality with the greatest lineup of equipment and facilities ever operated to keep the roads open?
For the first time, there will he a Ctate-wide radio hook-up of all district. and residency offices, equipment shops and engineers' cars for the quick movement of men, equipment or materials to a stricken area. .
Small transmitting and receiving sets have been installed in all residency offices except Chatham and Newport News, and these should be complete within 30 days, according to Delamater Davis, highway equipment engineer in charge of the work. The Newport News installation has been held up by a lack of copper antenna cable, and the Chatham office by a pending movement of the residency office. > '*
The Bristol, Lynchburg, Richmond, Suffolk and Fredericksburg district offices also are scheduled to have all equipment installed within a month, Davis said. Stations have previously been installed for the Salem and the Staunton and Culpeper districts.
To meet disasters, such as flash floods, the roafl agency has acquired three large dormitory and kitchen trailers to accomodate men who must be rushed to isolated areas where there are no nearby living or eating accommodations.
Equipment includes some 1,500 straight blade snow plows, a dozen rotary snow blowers, two large drift busters, hundreds of trucks and -tractors and fix new automatic abrasive spreaders. Around 13.000 tons of chemicals and more than 100,000 tons of abrasives are on hand for the fight-if it comesengineers said.
Preparations have i n c 1 u d ed trial runs of all eqqipment'completely manned and mounted for actual snow fighting, the erection of some 200 miles of snow fence, and stock piling materials on roadsides and at equipment lots. The trial runs are made as equipment is released from Summer work.
Other preparations include contacting city and town authorities for ice and snow removal on State highway routes through the municipalities, making, arrangements in small communities for help in opening roads, contracting superintendents of schools and State, City and County police; in^ntorying heavy equipment available from contractors for emergency work, and arranging for the employment of school bus drivers or other qualified operators when extra help is needed. : ,
Priorities for road cleaning come in the order of importance, with heavily traveled roads, school bus routes, milk routes and mail routes tops. \
With all these preparations, however, the road agency cautioned that heavy snows with high winds, or thick ice on pavements, will spell trouble, and at such 'times any necessary driving should be done with chains. Highway forces work around the clock during Winter storms, but it is impossible to remove instantly all snow or ice on the spoiling road network, they pointed out. C—
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