PennDOT, NJ DOT Pitching In To Help Boston Area Dig Out From Mammoth Snowfalls

By Paul Kurtz

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Massachusetts has been getting slammed with one blizzard after another.  But the state is about to get some help from Pennsylvania and New Jersey in its effort to dig out.

The immediate needs are for snow removal equipment and manpower.  Gene Blaum, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, says crews from the Philadelphia region left this morning and will join their Massachusetts counterparts tomorrow.

"We are sending to Massachusetts five dumptrucks, a mechanic truck, one backhoe, a trailer that's carrying the backhoe, and the operation is going to consist of loading snow into the dumptrucks and the trucks will take the snow to a designated area for disposal," Blaum says.

Penndot is dispatching additional trucks, plows, and crews from across the state.  Workers are limited to a seven-day hitch.

New Jersey DOT  is sending  ten dumptrucks equipped with plows and salt spreaders, six front-end loaders, ten "bobcats," and 36 workers.

Hundreds of National Guard troops have been called out to help clear the approximately six feet of snow that's fallen over the last two weeks in eastern Massachusetts.

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