Bruschi: Princeton Employees Working to Keep Roads Clear

SnowPlowOfficials in the town of Princeton decided not to do any significant pretreating of roads ahead of today’s snow, Princeton Administrator Bob Bruschi confirmed today, saying he thinks the decision was probably the right one.

“At this juncture it probably was a good decision as the volume of snow in the beginning would have negated a significant portion of any positive results from any pretreatment,” Bruschi said in an email to Planet Princeton.

Some residents have questioned why the roads weren’t pretreated. Ice was underneath the snow on many area roads this morning, and many people tried to drive to work and had to turn around and go home because of the poor road conditions.

Bruschi said he drove many of the roads in town early this morning both prior to and during the early part of the storm and didn’t experience any ice.  If ice was seen by the police department, it would have been called in to public works crews.

“Pretreating can help in many cases, but it is impossible to treat all of the roads from a cost and a practical sense, so judgement needs to be used,” Bruschi said.

“Right now we have all available manpower and vehicles out trying to stay on top of the snow,” Bruschi said, adding that crews are doing a good job keeping up.

There were several minor accidents in Princeton today because of the slippery roads, and some roads were closed for short periods. Bruschi said large leaf piles on the roads in some areas have created problems for public works crews.

Quakerbridge Road was so icy that it had to be closed this morning.

State troopers responded to 82 accidents and helped more than 100 other motorists who had slid off state roads between early morning and 10 a.m.