Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor’s first week in office has been unseasonably warm, but the new mayor nonetheless has been preparing for snow.
The city often faces criticism for how long it takes to plow and treat roads after snowfalls. When snow blanketed the city’s streets in December, some roads remained slick and untreated for days.
O’Connor this week announced a slew of new efforts to ensure Pittsburgh is better prepared for winter weather.
A new Snow Response Command Center — staffed by top administration officials and Department of Public Works leaders — in the City-County Building Downtown will monitor snowplow routes, salt levels and vehicle maintenance.
The new administration also plans to re-implement a snowplow tracker.
The city had previously operated a publicly accessibly tracking tool that allowed people to see which streets had been cleared. It had been removed in recent years, however, amid concerns the information it provided was often unreliable.
O’Connor in a letter to City Council members Thursday said the Department of Innovation & Performance will provide GPS units for plow trucks “so that the public will have more accurate, transparent access to the tracker.”
According to the mayor, only 72 of the 104 vehicles outfitted for snow removal were “roadworthy” as of Thursday morning.
“DPW is providing me a priority list of fleet needs, and I will be immediately authorizing extended hours to make vehicle repairs in order to get our fleet back on the road,” the mayor wrote.
Officials have long struggled to maintain an aging vehicle fleet, which is prone to breakdowns and costly repairs.
A proposal to ask neighboring Munhall to help plow some city streets that were often left untreated when snowplows were scarce was struck down by council last year.
The Department of Public Works, O’Connor said, will modify 17 vehicles from its Parks Division so they’re equipped to clear snow, though those vehicles won’t be available for two or three months.
Other changes O’Connor announced include:
- Reorganizing salt domes to separate two different types of salt that are effective at different temperatures to ensure crews use the right salt for the weather
- Searching for more salt storage facilities so drivers can refill on their routes more easily
- Chaining all trucks daily so they’re ready to respond to snow and ice “at a moment’s notice”
- Scheduling additional driver trainings so new workers can learn on salt trucks on dry, warm days so they’re ready when bad weather strikes
“These actions have started as of this morning,” the mayor wrote in his Thursday message. “We hope that they will help us in the next snow event, and the information will also help us use this year’s warmer months to overhaul the system for next winter.”
O’Connor in his letter to council members also said the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure’s Traffic Division building in the Strip District had asbestos. All workers were immediately removed from the building, the mayor said, as officials conduct environmental testing and develop an abatement plan.
