At a recent transportation summit in Bedford County, officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the PA Turnpike told 6News that they are preparing for the possibility of a very active winter season.

PennDOT officials said they stockpiled salt, anti-skid and other materials from last year’s mild winter, but they did not save money.

“We do have some leftover materials, we’re going to take advantage of that. We did store a lot of material out there,” said PennDOT District 9 Director Tom Pretash. “We’re hoping to take advantage of this year, which will help lighten our burden on our budgets.”

“Unfortunately last year, mother nature hurt us in a different way with the floods in the northeast,” said PA Secretary of Transportation Barry Schoch. “We spent, unexpectedly, a lot of money on the flooding. We were then fortunately blessed to have a mild winter. We prepare based on the average winter.”

PA Turnpike C.O.O Craig Shury told 6News that were able to dedicate funds from last year’s lackluster winter toward new equipment and technology.

“We saved a good bit of money last year in maintenance costs. Obviously that’s a great thing for us, we’d love to see it again,” said Shuey. “We’ve got some new equipment to fight storms, in terms of some tow-plows and other exciting ways that we deal with winter. But we’re really hope they sit on the sideline all winter long.”

For information on immediate, seasonal jobs available with PennDOT, visit

http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Internet/Bureaus/pdBOP.nsf/DivClassifHomepage?OpenFrameset