While most of us are still taking dips in the pool, county managers with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation are working on winter.

"At PennDOT, we work on winter all year long," said Bruce Bubser, the Berks County maintenance manager.Tom Rogal, the Carbon County maintenance manager, said, "In July, you really start digging in for the next winter season. It's our main focus."On Aug. 31, PennDOT's District 5 supervisors, managers, construction and organizational support staff convened for Snow Academy. District 5 staff rotates attendance at the academy over four years, with 25 percent of staff meeting each year.Rogal said the meeting is meant to update them on any new technologies, as well as to answer their questions about safety, equipment maintenance and materials. Unveiled last winter, one of the newest technologies is the Automated Vehicle Location system. It is tied into the PA 511 website.Bubser said the AVL system lets PennDOT and the public know where the snowplows are every 15 minutes. The website is a reference "where they can see we're doing what we say we're doing," he said.Last year, the AVL system was on a limited number of trucks. Even then, the website had more than 250,000 hits with positive feedback, Rogal said. This winter, the system will be on all of the department's newer trucks. Those from 2008 and older will have GPS systems only.Statewide, PennDOT has more than 2,600 snowplow trucks. District 5 has 239 trucks, of which 30 are winter rentals, Bubser said. Carbon County has 17 trucks. Rogal said five local municipalities assist the county in plowing.The AVL system also tells PennDOT what material is being put down and how much of it is being used, he said.PennDOT determines how much material to buy based on five-year averages, Rogal said. Last year was light, but the winter before was nasty."No prognosis for the new year, but we always prepare for the worst," he said. "Every storm is a little different."Factors like humidity and temperature can affect the amount and type of precipitation that falls.The Carbon County offices must have 75 percent of its salt supplies ordered by Nov. 1, Rogal said. But they do have leftover salt from last year."We have salt on hand, and if it snowed tomorrow in Carbon County, we're good," he said.PennDOT uses three types of materials to fight ice and snow. In addition to granule salt, there is also salt brine and anti-skid. Salt brine is liquid salt made from solar salt because it has very little dirt in it. This keeps the sprayers from clogging up with dirt. Anti-skid material is stone chips, Rogal said.This winter, snowplows will be equipped with dual spreaders in Carbon County, Rogal said, which means that salt is dispersed from both sides of the truck.It is important to give plows enough room to work, Bubser said. The main plow is 12 feet long."Passing them is extremely dangerous," he said.Plows that are equipped with wings are even bigger. Each wing is 3 feet long and can be placed on either or both sides of the main plow.Then there are tow plows. The additional section of a tow plow stretches 22 feet long. Tanks carrying 2,200 gallons of salt brine are attached to the plow, Bubser said. They are designed to plow the entire width of a two-lane highway."There's no way safely to pass that vehicle," he said. Still, some people try to pass on the right side. "There's 4 to 5 tons of snow coming off of it."Just be patient; snowplows travel 12 miles and either let people pass or exit to go in the other direction. Even better than patience, don't travel in a snowstorm at all, officials said.