In preparation for the winter season, the New York State Thruway Authority has unveiled safety improvements and new equipment to help keep the 570-mile superhighway safe.
During the 2023 – 2024 snow and ice season, Thruway Authority operators cleared more than 1.1 million lane miles, removing roughly 172 inches, or more than 14 feet, of snow. New for this upcoming winter is all of the Thruway’s more than 250 heavy-duty plow trucks will be equipped with green hazard lights, which are intended to improve visibility and safety during the winter months, particularly in low-light conditions and poor weather.
NEW EQUIPMENT
In addition to the green hazard lights, the Thruway Authority will be deploying more than 50 new pieces of snow-fighting equipment statewide including 19 new heavy-duty plow trucks which are scheduled to be in service by the end of the year, 25 medium-duty snowplows, loaders, skid steers with snowblowers and snow pushers, light-duty pickup trucks with plows and spreaders, new salt spreader bodies, as well as two snowmobiles and a UTV for the New York State Police Troop T. Overall, the Thruway Authority has more than 400 snow-fighting vehicles and pieces of equipment ready to be deployed for the first snowfall.
Furthermore, this will be the first Winter for the new and improved Thruway Statewide Operations Center (TSOC) located inside the Thruway Authority’s Administrative Headquarters in Albany, which opened in August. TSOC is a communications dispatch center that coordinates traffic incident response, is responsible for emergency management, and provides traveler information throughout the entire Thruway. It operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long.
iCONE PILOT PROGRAM
As part of the Thruway Authority’s ongoing commitment to enhancing safety for both plow operators and the traveling public, the Authority is launching a pilot program in partnership with iCone. This initiative will involve equipping 50 heavy-duty plow trucks with devices that can provide real-time data to popular vehicle navigation applications such as Google Maps and Waze. During snow operations, the device connects with navigation systems to alert drivers about potential upcoming hazards, such as snowplow activities. This alerts motorists to be aware and to navigate the area safely, significantly enhancing driving efficiency and ensuring the safety of plow operators.
The devices will be installed and operational in select plows in each of the Thruway’s four Maintenance Divisions where the highest number of plow crashes took place in the last five years. If successful, the Authority will look to installing iCone devices in all Thruway plow trucks.
During Winter 2023-2024, there were 16 crashes involving Thruway plows while engaged in snow operations. In the last five years, Thruway plows have been involved in more than 75 crashes.
WINTER DRIVING SAFETY
Drivers are reminded that Thruway snowplows travel at about 35 miles per hour — which in many cases is slower than the posted speed limit — in order to ensure that salt being dispersed stays in the driving lanes and does not scatter off the roadways. The safest place for motorists is well behind the snowplows where the roadway is clear and salted.
For more information on the Thruway’s Winter Maintenance Program, motorists are encouraged to visit thruway.ny.gov.
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