Pittsburgh preparing for winter after first snow of season hits region

PITTSBURGH — We’ve seen it year after year, roads still covered in snow hours after the storm has passed.

“Two or three days before we get the streets cleared,” said Paul Sweitzer.

Sweitzer lives in Brookline and isn’t sure the right answer to getting his road plowed, but he believes there has to be one.

“I live in a hollow and to get out you have to go up a bunch of steep hills, and when they are full of snow you can’t make it,” Sweitzer said.

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Those hills are a big issue. Councilman Anthony Coghill said the topography takes longer to clear to safely get up and down. So he’s making changes by adding more salt to every run.

“In the end I don’t want to save money on salt, we have the steepest iciest hills,” Coghill said.

Plus salt boxes are going up in the South Hills communities like Overbrook, Carrick and Brookline. Six new trucks were added last year and seven more this year, Coghill said it’s an all hands-on deck approach.

“We are putting on more employees this year so we will have more forces. We are training plow truck drivers. We are pulling people out of the parks division and training them to drive our plow trucks,” Coghill said.

He wants the public to know these are just minor fixes. Without a public works division in the communities, drivers are losing time every time a truck a refilled.

“We are losing an hour of time compared to other districts because we have to travel, we get caught in the same traffic everyone else gets caught in,” Coghill said.

He believes the perfect solution will be that new Public Works division in Beltzhoover.

“Come hell or high water we are going to build that division next year,” Coghill said.

Coghill told Channel 11 they are trying to get residents’ opinions too as they make these changes. The city has already met with residents of Brookline and on November 21st there is a meeting planned in Carrick with the mayor.

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RAW: Contractors hit major gas line near St. Clair Hospital; busy road shut down RAW: Contractors hit major gas line near St. Clair Hospital; busy road shut down

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