Most snow plows in Northern Virginia are contract plows. I haven’t seen an actual VDOT plow for years.
And that’s fine. My point is that the three jurisdictions need to coordinate on routes.
Keeping the interstates clear is obviously a top priority. In a major storm, they are likely to be revisited repeatedly, starting with pre-treatment before the snow begins and then again periodically for the duration.
From a rational planning perspective, it would be obviously absurd for DC to send snowplows trundling repeatedly along secondary routes in MD or VA to reach a very short, isolated downstream bridge.
Virginia plows rolling north up I-495/I-95 should continue across the river, then loop back at the first appropriate cloverleaf and clear the southbound lanes on their way back. Or MD plows should do the same thing in reverse.
DC would then compensate by adjusting a few of its own routes. A DC plow could clear the 14th Street bridge, then turn along the GW Parkway and return via the Memorial Bridge , clearing a couple of miles of VA road in the process. Or a DC plow could run a bit further up Connecticut or Wisconsin Avenues or Bladensburg Road, and return by a sensible route.
The highway people in all three jurisdictions prepare these route maps in advance. They need to talk to each other. I assume that they usually do. I never did find out how the ball got dropped in that particular instance, or why it took so long to get sorted out. Once I-95 got hopelessly snarled, of course, it took days to remove all the cars so plows could get through. A little advance planning goes a long way.