PennDOT began March 7 shipping an additional 35,000 tons of road salt from the port in Delaware to its roadway maintenance stockpiles across the state.

"Under the direction of Governor Tom Corbett, PennDOT has worked aggressively to speed deliveries of road salt so we can maintain safety for the traveling public," PennDOT Secretary Barry J. Schoch said. "This new supply will be spread from eastern to western Pennsylvania, based on need, to replenish our stocks."

Working with the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, PennDOT issued emergency, low-bid contracts for five haulers to pick up the salt and deliver it to PennDOT maintenance yards in the Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley and Harrisburg-Lancaster-York regions and to one in Fulton County.

The Lehigh Valley PennDOT district will receive 5,000 tons; the Philadelphia-area district, 5,000 tons; and the Harrisburg-area district, 12,000 tons. Once these deliveries are complete, in about two weeks, the department will have more than 200,000 tons of salt on the ground statewide.

The latest emergency deliveries come immediately after one that ran Feb. 25 to March 4, in which 20,000 tons of salt were shipped to PennDOT facilities in the Philadelphia, Allentown and Harrisburg regions.

So far this winter, PennDOT has used 1.12 million tons of salt, 35 percent more than the past five winters' average usage of nearly 831,000 tons.

Under a Feb. 5 emergency proclamation, drivers delivering salt can provide service for periods beyond normal limits to help accelerate shipments.