'We weren't going to win on Saturday': Plow, salt crews weather weekend snowstorm

Hempfield Public Works Director Austin Erhard was upfront with his plowing and salting crews as nasty weather began to roll in this past weekend.

“I was very clear with them: We weren’t going to win the day on Saturday,” he said. “We just weren’t going to be able to have bare roads. Our main focus Saturday night was keeping our major roadways passable.”

Erhard’s crew got to work Friday evening, pre-treating Hempfield’s hills and major intersections in anticipation of the early snow squalls that moved in late Saturday morning and eventually dumped more than a half-foot of snow on the region.

“For us, plowing one of our 26 snow routes takes about four hours,” Erhard said.

Public works crews across Southwestern Pennsylvania were pulling long shifts to keep up with the weather and keep roads passable.

“Our operations started at about 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and went until around 11 p.m. Saturday night,” Erhard said.

The National Weather Service reported snowfall ranged from 5 inches in Carnegie to a foot at Seven Springs during the storm.

Lower Burrell

Lower Burrell crews worked a 14.5-hour shift Saturday into Sunday, Councilman David Stoltz said.

“We had plenty of salt,” Stoltz said. “(Public Works Director Michelle Hatbob) already ordered 800 tons this morning, and most of it has already been delivered.”

There are about 52 miles of city roads in Lower Burrell. The city prioritizes state routes and hills first and then moves on to other roads.

“All roads are clear and caught up,” Stoltz said. “The guys were just doing some small cleanup stuff today.”

Blawnox

Blawnox Borough Manager Cory Dennison said each of the three public works employees put in about 13 hours of overtime clearing roads this past weekend: five hours Saturday and seven hours Sunday.

Those workers include foreman Mike Belotti, who told management he plans to order about 50 more tons of salt within the month to ensure enough supply for the rest of the winter.

Dennison said a spreader on one of the two borough salt trucks broke early Sunday morning, and the part was replaced by Monday afternoon.

“We’re proud of the work that our public works guys do keeping the borough clean,” Dennison said Monday afternoon.

Freeport Road is maintained by PennDOT. All other roads in Blawnox are treated by public works, which starts at the top of the hills and works down toward the Allegheny River.

It’s unclear how much salt is used in one boroughwide treatment.

Greensburg

In Greensburg, public works Director Tom Bell had his crews out for 16 hours straight.

“We started around 3 p.m. Saturday, and they were out until 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning with relentless plowing,” Bell said. “With how the snow was coming down, you’d plow and it would cover right back over.”

Bell said his crews delayed salting because they’d just be plowing it back off the road during their next pass.

“It would be wasting resources,” he said. “We stopped salting until it was manageable.”

Greensburg certainly isn’t about to run out of road salt.

“We’re in great shape,” Bell said. “We’re packed solid, and I don’t feel like we used a whole lot this time. If we were to get a couple more snows like this, that would be a different situation. But for what we’ve had, we’re at a pretty manageable state.”

At 8 a.m. Monday morning, Erhard placed an order for an additional 1,000 tons of salt, which he said should likely get Hempfield through the end of the year.

“Looking at the long-range forecast, it seems like things will warm up a little as we’re heading into Christmas,” he said. “With that refill, we’ll be sitting on 3,000 tons of salt.”

Greensburg crews were back out Monday morning, initially clearing a couple of snow squalls that came through late Sunday night and then playing “cleanup” on some side streets.

“The biggest issue we have in Greensburg is how tight some of the streets are, with parking on both sides in neighborhoods like Hilltop. There was some slushiness, and some roads were still snowy.”

Bell said it’s difficult to keep narrow streets clear, especially once residents start digging out their cars.

“We’ll plow, then people come shovel their cars out, and a lot of times that snow ends up tossed back into the street,” he said. “And then people look outside and think the plow hasn’t been by, but we have.”

Plum

In Plum, Assistant Manager DJ Housley said the borough experienced some staffing shortages over the weekend, but crews managed to take care of the roadways.

“We handled it as well as we could have,” he said.

Altogether, he said, about 18 drivers worked to clear roads throughout Saturday afternoon and throughout the night into Sunday morning.

One plow truck slid off the road into a ditch, but the work otherwise progressed normally, he said.

Most of Plum’s roadways are clear by now, though Housley said crews continue to deal with snow drift.

Latrobe

Scott Wajdic, Latrobe’s public works director, estimates his street crew used a fifth of the 1,000 tons of salt the city had on hand before this weekend’s snowstorm. He placed an order for more Monday.

The crew pretreated streets at 1 p.m. Saturday, and plows were able to keep main routes open throughout the storm, he said.

“For a while, in the middle of the storm, it was tough to keep up,” Wajdic said Monday morning. “They’re just cleaning up side streets now.

“We had two small breakdowns, but we have backup trucks. So we were OK.”

Unity

Next door in Unity, manning 22 trucks, the road crew and three elected township supervisors got to work on the township’s 164 miles of roads beginning about 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

“We initially put down salt,” township Supervisor Mike O’Barto said. “Then it started to snow heavier. We were out the whole night, took a break and came back in (Sunday) morning and finished up.

“It was intense because the snow just would not stop, and then it started to get colder, too. Salt isn’t going to work between zero and seven degrees.”

O’Barto said the roads were “very passable” by 7 a.m. Sunday.

“Most important is making sure emergency personnel are able to use the roads in the township for any emergency that may come up,” he said. “We do have a lot of residents who work at the hospitals, doctors and nurses. They have to be able to get to the hospital.”

O’Barto said the road crew’s goals include ensuring vehicles can pass over roads on hills and in areas where snow typically drifts onto roads.

“One of the challenges is a lot of blowing and drifting snow,” he said. “We want to make sure there’s not a foot of snow lying on the road. Sunday afternoon, I went out and checked the roads about three times.”

He said the township also plans to order more road salt. He estimated the weekend storm depleted a tenth or more of the 3,000 tons of salt Unity keeps on hand.

Cheswick

Cheswick, which encompasses less than one square mile, runs a two-man road crew.

Council President Brad Yaksich said his drivers hit the road about 5 p.m. Saturday. He said drivers save the flat portions of the borough for last.

“Our main focus is the hills,” Yaksich said. “The guys did a great job. I’m very impressed.”

By Monday, he said, all of Cheswick’s streets had been plowed, and the borough hadn’t received any resident complaints.

Come January, Yaksich said, the borough is expecting 340 tons of salt, which is Cheswick’s typical yearly order.

“We’re well prepared for almost anything,” he said.

Export

In Export, councilman and public works head Stephen Opsitnick Jr. said clearing the borough’s roads has gone well.

“The only thing is, because of the cold, the salt doesn’t work right away,” Opsitnick said. “During the first few hours, you know, you plow and roads get covered over again, but it’s going well now.”

Opsitnick said the borough is in good shape with its salt supply.

“I’m going to be ordering some in the near future to keep up, but we’re doing fine,” he said.

Fox Chapel

Fox Chapel public works director Larry Kurpakus said the first major snowstorm of the winter was uneventful for his team.

“We were prepared,” Kurpakus said Monday following a cleanup of low volume roads and cul-de-sacs that afternoon.

“We have a stockpile ready. We have plenty of salt and take routine deliveries throughout the winter to keep our stockpile full.”

Kurpakus said there were some icy conditions and areas that needed touched up early Monday morning, but roads were ready for rush hour.

The borough has nine salt truck drivers and sends five trucks out on various routes. Crews were split into two shifts this weekend.

Kurpakus said crews were out from 3 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday and used an estimated 350-400 tons of salt.

“The forecast was good,” he said. “They were anticipating snow to come in early afternoon, so we were already ready to go.”

Main areas include Fox Chapel Road, Fairview, Old Mill, Hunt and Guyasuta roads and a segment of Powers Run Road.

“We use on average about 2,500 tons per season,” he said. “We have close to 2,000 ton on hand and resupply that additional 500 ton throughout the winter.”

Compiled by staff writers Michael DiVittorio, James Engel, Jeff Himler and Patrick Varine.