VDOT Staunton District prepares for this week’s winter weather weekend

STAUNTON — Virginia Department of Transportation crews are preparing for the weekend winter weather event forecasted to begin during the morning of Saturday, January 6. Snow and sleet are expected in the Shenandoah Valley and Alleghany Highlands region. Several inches are anticipated with larger snow totals possible in higher elevation areas.

All travelers are asked to be aware of weather and travel conditions along their route. Conditions are expected to vary across Virginia during this storm. Always buckle up when traveling. The safest practice is to avoid travel during the snow and ice event.

VDOT crews will be pretreating interstate and some primary roads throughout the Staunton District and in other parts of the state on Friday, January 5.  Travelers are asked to provide room for brine trucks.

During the early morning hours of Saturday, January 6, crews in the VDOT Staunton District crews will be staged and prepared to begin snow removal operations once accumulations begin. The Staunton District will mobilize approximately 974 pieces of equipment for this weather event.

Road conditions and traffic cameras can be found on the VDOT 511 website at http://www.511Virginia.org, Roads with snow conditions will be marked minor, moderate, severe or closed. Apps for 511 are available for android and iOS devices.

Road condition definitions:

• Closed – Road is closed to all traffic.
• Severe – drifting or partially blocked road.
• Moderate – snow or ice on major portions of the roadway. 
• Minor – bare pavement except for isolated spots of snow, ice or slush.  Driving with caution is recommended.

For a text listing of winter weather road conditions go to http://www.511Virginia.org, look at the orange bar on the top of the page and click on “Text Views” and then click on “Road Condition Table”. Look at the pull down box that lists all jurisdictions.  In this box individual counties can be chosen to view.

The VDOT Customer Service Center can be accessed through its mobile friendly website at https://my.vdot.virginia.gov/. Agents are on site 24/7 every day of the year to assist the public. People can also call the VDOT Customer Service Center at 800-FOR- ROAD (800-367-7623).

The Staunton District X (formerly Twitter) feed is at @VaDOTStaunton.

VDOT statewide X feeds can be found at @VaDOT. The nine districts can be found at: Hampton Roads  @VaDOTHR; Richmond @VaDOTRVA; Northern Virginia @VaDOTNOVA;  Fredericksburg @VaDOTFred; Culpeper @VaDOTCulp; Lynchburg  @VaDOTLynchburg; Bristol @VaDOTBristol; Salem @VaDOTSalem; Staunton  @VaDOTStaunton.

The VDOT Staunton District is on Facebook and X. Follow VDOT statewide accounts on Facebook, Flickr, X and YouTube. The VDOT Web page is www.vdot.virginia.gov.

The VDOT Staunton District serves Frederick, Shenandoah, Clarke, Warren, Page, Rockingham, Augusta, Highland, Rockbridge, Alleghany and Bath counties.