Road crews prepared for wintry mix hitting Pittsburgh-area on Saturday
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The weekend is upon us, and if you have places to go or errands to run, get them done before Saturday afternoon. A freezing rain and wintry mix is moving into parts of the Pittsburgh area.
The heaviest freezing rain is expected northeast of Pittsburgh and in the Laurel Highlands. The wintry mix is expected to begin toward the mid/late afternoon hours of Saturday and continue up to midnight on Sunday.
It's been a harsh winter already, but Lori Musto with PennDOT said they have "ample" salt supplies.
The City of Pittsburgh said it's also prepared for Saturday, as well as the potential for snow next week. The city said it too has plenty of salt.
Both PennDOT, Allegheny County and the city of Pittsburgh say staffing is ready and crews will pre-treat roads if necessary.
In terms of trying to drive during an ice event, the advice is always don't unless you absolutely must. If you have to drive, AAA says don't use cruise control and try to accelerate and decelerate slowly. And if you hit an icy spot, don't slam on your brakes. Remain calm and try to gain control. Don't stop if you can avoid it; instead slow down enough to keep rolling until a traffic light changes. And don't power up hills.
"We just had an event a couple days ago, so we do have residue, salt residue on the roadways. But we will pretreat if we see any roadway that needs it that doesn't have the salt residue," Musto said.