Westmoreland Co. Deals With Dire Salt Shortage
WESTMORELAND COUNTY (KDKA) – The salt situation in Westmoreland County was dire last week.
Well, now that all this has happened it's become a situation that motorists are simply going to have to do the best they can.
"Absolutely horrendous," said Lance Wingard of Jeannette. "I had to call off work. I got stuck twice on a hill. Just horrible."
"Nasty, very, very nasty," said Leslie Hill of Jeannette. "I didn't like them at all."
Those were the reviews of the roads in Westmoreland County post-snow. But don't blame municipalities for putting the black top on a low-salt diet.
"We were promised 400 toms last week," said Hempfield Director of Public Works Mike Volpe. "We only got 75 ton. We were promised 100 ton today, I got 100 ton."
"We're only salting hills and bad intersections, bends," Volpeadded.
And Hempfield Township with 300 miles of roads has a lot of those.
"As far as salt," said Volpe, "from Harrisburg, out our way. Other than Pittsburgh, we're the biggest salt user in the state."
"Everybody is in the same boat," Volpe added. "They have material on order and they're waiting for deliveries."
The state contractor, American Rock Salt, is telling the municipalities running low on rock salt, that they're trying to give everybody some salt.
"If we don't get any deliveries by the end of this week, there just won't be any salt to go anywhere," Volpe said.
That being the case, the best advice may just be to stay home.
The hope is all salt scheduled to arrive will finally get there. That is if the rucks can get through the roads that need the salt.
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