Montoursville, PA – In advance of the winter weather forecasted, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) will be pre-treating roadways in the District 3 region of Bradford, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga and Union counties.

Anti-icing involves wetting the highway with salt brine before a storm’s arrival. The solution lowers the freezing point of water and slows or prevents ice from forming a bond with the pavement during the early stages of a storm.

The salt brine is spread from sprayers attached to the brine tank on PennDOT trucks. The trucks have signs on the backs indicating their purpose. The public can track the location of PennDOT plow trucks on www.511PA.com.

While precipitation is falling, PennDOT will have crews treating roadways around the clock, but the department aims to keep the roads passable rather than completely free of ice and snow. PennDOT will continue to treat roadways through the storm until precipitation stops and roads are clear.

With freezing temperatures, roads that look wet may actually be icy, and extra caution is needed when approaching bridges and highway ramps where ice can form without warning. Motorists should leave plenty of space when following a truck that is plowing or spreading winter materials.

While PennDOT recommends not traveling during winter storms, motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles, including color-coded winter conditions on 2,900 miles, by visiting www.511PA.com.  511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras.