Preparing for nor’easter, Gov. Charlie Baker expects travel restrictions on Massachusetts Turnpike, directs all non-emergency state employees to stay home
Updated Feb 01, 2021;
Nearly 4,000 pieces of equipment will be available to help clear the state’s highways as snow begins to fall on Monday, yet Gov. Charlie Baker anticipates even that fleet of plows, salters and sanders won’t be sufficient to keep up with the winter storm.
Baker is advising residents to remain off roadways and ordered all non-emergency state employees to stay home Monday.
The Registry of Motor Vehicles will open Monday morning but close at noon. Customers who have appointments for transactions or scheduled road tests Monday afternoon can go to mass.gov/RMV to reschedule. All other Executive Branch state offices will be closed to the public.
Gov. Charlie Baker and other administration officials met with the media Monday morning to talk about the commonwealth s preparedness for a Nor easter expected to dump more than a foot of snow on Berkshire County. Asked what was different about planning for this storm versus past weather events, Baker admitted that there is a small upside to dealing with a Nor easter in a time when many Bay Staters already are doing their best to stay home as much as possible. The fact that so many people have the ability or have been primarily working remotely for a long period of time means that one of the things you worry about the most, which is everybody deciding to go home from work at exactly the same time all the plows hit the streets, is just not the kind of concern it would traditionally be, Baker said.
Freight Operations Resume in Snow-Smothered Northeast States
A worker clears snow from a New York City street after a severe winter storm set in.(Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg News)
Freight operations in the Northeast are proceeding after a massive snowstorm walloped the region, resulting in temporary restrictions on commercial vehicle travel.
Leaders in several states established truck travel restrictions as a Nor’easter moved in Feb. 1. According to the National Weather Service, the storm dumped 17.4 inches of snow in New York City, 16.6 inches in Norfolk, Conn., and 14.5 inches in Scranton, Pa.
Rhode Island Trucking Association President Christopher Maxwell expressed frustration with the state’s travel restriction, noting snow had not accumulated in his area by late morning Feb. 1. Rhode Island’s ban prohibited all tractor-trailers, except those carrying emergency supplies, from traveling on state roadways. Rhode Island Department of Transportation spokesman Charles St. Mar
A 27-year-old Massachusetts man died Saturday evening in a rollover crash on Interstate 95 in North Attleboro, state police said. Massachusetts State Police troopers responded to reports of a rollover crash around 5:35 p.m. about a half mile north of Exit 5 in North Attleboro. Police say the collision involved two vehicles, the one driver was killed while the other.