Snow begins falling in Danville

Snow began falling in the Dan River Region shortly after 2 p.m. this afternoon.

The Department of Public Works implemented a specific snow plan this year, which focuses on the city’s main thoroughfares and branches out from there, in anticipation of potential adverse winter weather.

“The snow plan is revised every year,” said Barry Doebert, administrative division director for Danville Public Works.

Public Works may see action as the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for Danville from noon Friday until 7 p.m. Saturday. About a foot of snowfall is predicted.

The new plan was implemented Nov. 1, and the department had a snow day later that month. Drivers and emergency responders went over the new plan and its revisions during the snow day.

Doebert said the additions of Coleman MarketPlace and Holt Garrison Parkway in the last two years forced the department to adapt its snow plan.

The Public Works department monitors winter weather through the National Weather Service and an on-site computer terminal that provides weather updates in real time. Once department officials decide that a snow or ice storm is on the way, they drop brine on main roads and bridges. Brine is a mixture of salt and water that prevents snow and ice from freezing to the pavement.

The department then sets up 12-hour shifts, which start after the storm hits.

Crews use the department’s 22 snowplows to clear Danville’s five main thoroughfares during the storm. They focus on Piney Forest Road, U.S. 29 Business, Central Boulevard, South Main Street and U.S. 58 in the city limits.

After the snow stops, crews plow secondary routes like North Main Street, Arnett Boulevard and Franklin Turnpike. Then they move into neighborhoods.

Doebert said plowing from the end of the storm to the first pass through neighborhoods could take 36 hours.

Trucks are outfitted with a plow and spreader, Doebert said. The weather dictates whether crews use both. Doebert said that if Danville gets an icy snow, then trucks will spread salt as they plow the roads. If it’s a wetter snow, then trucks just push the snow aside with the plow.

Doebert said the department has all the tools it needs to handle different situations that winter weather may present.

“Every storm is different,” Doebert said. “It all depends on the snow.”