Pittsburgh Department of Public Works outlines winter weather plan of attack

PITTSBURGH — At a news conference Friday morning at the Department of Public Works 3rd division facility in Hazelwood, DPW workers along with the mayor outlined their plan of attack for winter weather this season.

“Mayor, I know when you came into office, you asked us to go get it, but I got to say I feel like we are ready to get whatever comes our way,” said DPW Director Chris Hornstein.

While it’s been relatively mild the past couple of years, DPW workers said Friday they are prepared for the worst, and they outlined their top priority.

“Our goal is to treat every street and the operative word is treat, treat every street within 24 hours of the last snowflake,” said DPW Deputy Director Bill Crean.

Crean said crews will pretreat streets with brine, and use salt with magnesium chloride that’s good to 20 below zero.

And they’ve eliminated that automatic salt controller 11 Investigates first exposed under the Peduto administration six years ago, after DPW salt truck drivers complained it wouldn’t allow them to drop the right amount of salt.

The city has returned control of salt to the drivers.

“They know the streets better than anybody I know, and so providing that opportunity to put the how much salt needs to go on which street back into their hands only makes our city safer,” said Mayor Ed Gainey.

But once again this winter, there will still be no 4th division public works facility in the South Hills, arguably the most difficult area of the city to treat.

“It probably has the most challenging assignment, just in terms of hills, types of streets, narrowness of streets, what have you, the South Side Slopes,” said Hornstein.

That facility in Knoxville was supposed to be completed two years ago, but a number of problems including the discovery of an old mine delayed construction.

It won’t be finished until next winter but officials say two nearby salt piles including this one on Route 51, along with the strategic staging of salt trucks has led to fewer complaints.

“The 311 (calls) that we get from those areas, Brookline, Carrick, South Side Slopes just in the last two years, we’ve seen a dramatic reduction,” said Hornstein.

DPW officials also reminded drivers to leave enough room for salt trucks and they asked residents not to shovel the snow from the sidewalks and driveways back into the streets.

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