What to Know About This 'Jawn'
- The Philadelphia International Airport has invested millions in equipment to battle snow and ice this winter.
- PHL showed off some of its winter-weather artillery that includes a massive snowplow/broom called "Snow Jawn."
- "We have 40 million square feet of surface on just runways, taxiways and aprons that require snow removal," PHL Chief Operating Officer Keith Brune said.
From a dusting to a blizzard, Philadelphia’s airport has a "Jawn" for that.
The Philadelphia International Airport, a.k.a. PHL, showed off its “Snow Jawn” and other snow plows, jet brooms and other aptly-named winter weather-clearing tools on Thursday.
“Winter is coming” and PHL says it has invested in being ready for snow, ice, sleet and slush. PHL has a 46-piece “snow artillery” that includes 12 multifunction 22-foot plow/20-foot broom units – including the massive "Snow Jawn" – that cost $860,000 each. The airport also has two jet brooms – "Terra Hawk" and "Silver Hawk" – that cost $1.2 million each and feature 28-foot plows and chemical de-icing tools.
"We have 40 million square feet of surface on just runways, taxiways and aprons that require snow removal," PHL Chief Operating Officer Keith Brune said. "That’s the equivalent to 631 lane miles of snow or the distance from Philadelphia to Lexington, Kentucky."
PHL workers selected the names for all their jawns, which also include "Snow Angel," "Heatwave," "Ice Wookie," "Multifarious," "Snow Slayer," "Snowmizer," "Time Bandit," "Tropic Breeze," "Yeti" and, the not to be confused with NBC10 StormRanger, "Storm Breaker."
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Once snow falls, the airport hopes the aptly named ice force can keep passengers flying.
“We have salt trucks for landside roads and chemical trucks to pre-treat surfaces before snow arrives. Once there is more than half-an-inch of wet snow or two inches of dry snow on the runways, we bring out the plow and broom vehicles,” Brune said.
And in case you've been wondering what a jawn is... it's Philly slang for a anything, according to Dictionary.com.
