Snow Preparations

When snow is in the forecast, the Port Authority has extra personnel on duty at all of its facilities. During the most severe storms, staff work around-the-clock in 12-hour shifts. The airports, bridges, tunnels and PATH have snow desks where key personnel analyze weather reports and deploy staff and equipment.

The Port Authority’s winter weather plan features:

more than 200 pieces of heavy snow equipment at its airports, including modern, multi-use units that can plow, brush and blow snow at 35 mph; melters that can liquefy up to 500 tons of snow an hour, and plows that can clear snow at 40 mph;
approximately 60 pieces of snow equipment at the bridges and tunnels, including 28 trucks equipped with plows and spreaders at the George Washington Bridge, the world’s busiest;
more than 2,000 tons of salt and more than 1,500 tons of sand for airport roads and parking lots, plus more than 2,000 tons of salt for the bridges and tunnels;
approximately 300,000 gallons of liquid anti-icer chemicals at the airports, which prevents snow and ice from bonding to runways and taxiways, plus approximately 1,700 tons of solid deicers, which break up ice and snow already on the ground;
plow-equipped trains, liquid snow-melting agent trains and a “jet engine” plow to remove snow from tracks, and snow blowers, plows and spreaders to clear station entrances, roads that serve PATH’s 13 stations, and various support facilities; and
approximately 1,000 staff members and contractors with years of specialized training and professional experience in handling severe winter weather at transportation facilities.