Western Pa. Road Crews Ready For Incoming Snow And First Test Of Season
By: KDKA-TV's Jennifer Borrasso
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Road crews are gearing up for their first big test of the season.
The greater Pittsburgh area is getting ready for the first real snowfall, and the owner of Miller Ace Hardware in Mt. Oliver says the coronavirus pandemic is helping business.
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"Normally, people would blow off at home and go to work and hopefully, it is melted by the time they get home," said owner Steve Miller. "But since they are at home now, they are more prepared."
PennDOT spokesperson Steve Cowan says traffic is less during the pandemic but that does not change the work for the 75 trucks hitting Allegheny County. He says workers won't be pretreating the roads because of the rain before the storm.
"We will have crews out during the duration of this storm regardless of whether we have normal traffic volumes or not," said Cowan.
In Pittsburgh, Public Works Director Mike Gable says the city is prepared.
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"We have about 55 trucks that will be out tonight, starting at 10 p.m. and work until 6 a.m. until the daylight shift. And we supplemented it with 16 more vehicles," Gable said.
Stephen Shanley is Allegheny County's Department of Public Works director.
"We will be deploying 26 trucks tomorrow. We will be bringing our crews in at 4 in the morning. We will be monitoring the weather as we go, and we will see if we need to deploy them sooner on the road," Shanley said.
A PennDOT spokesperson in Westmoreland County says they will have 68 plow trucks ready to go.
