Bridgeport tracks plows with GPS

Bridgeport, Conn. (WTNH) - The Bridgeport Public Works Department is ready for the year's first big snow storm.

About 90 of the city's snow plows are equipped with a GPS tracking device.

"Our GPS tracking program is an invaluable tool in helping the City increase the efficiency of our snow plow drivers, and allows us to track the truck's progress during a snowstorm," said Charles Carroll, Director of Public Facilities.

The next snow storm is expected to hit Connecticut on Friday and could bring with it up to six inches. Click here for the complete forecast.

After falling behind when it came to cleaning the streets after last weeks snow storm, Bridgeport is using some new technology to get an upperhand on mother nature.

"We can see any of the trucks where they're moving, how fast they are going, what areas they are in. We can track how many streets they have done, so we can look at a particular area and see if we have missed anything," says Carroll.

Now that data can be combined on a map with the location of phone calls and emails of people reporting streets that still need to be plowed.

"Take the data, layer it, onto a gps map. Provide it not only to police, fire public utility crews, but also to EMS, the hospitals, to have them get a sense of where the calls are coming in," says Scott  Appleby of the Emergency Operations Center.

Bridgeport has strapped a plow to just about everything that looks like a truck.

"We have small plows on smaller trucks now, small culdesacs and dead ends. We are also putting plows on all of our sanitation trucks, all of our garbage trucks," says Mayor Bill Finch.

There were a few troubles with the last big storm, such as clearing out back streets and culdesacs, but Bridgeport residents say, there will never be a big plowing mess like they had down 95 last week.

"We are all in this together, we aren't going to get into a condition like New York City. We aren't going to let that happen. says Mayor Finch.