Forbes and Fifth among new snow emergency routes

The temperature is dropping and snowflakes accumulating, but students shoudn’t expect a repeat… The temperature is dropping and snowflakes accumulating, but students shoudn’t expect a repeat performance of last February’s “Snowpocalypse,” the record-breaking snowstorm that all but halted traffic in Oakland.

Forbes and Fifth avenues are two of the snow emergency routes the city is implementing, meaning these streets will be some of the first in Pittsburgh to be cleared.

Emergency signs, which read “Emergency Snow Route” and have a picture of a snow flake, have already started appearing on the streets.

Rob Kaczorowski, the city’s Public Works Director, called the chosen emergency routes the “major arteries” of the city.  When inclement weather necessitates road clearing, these emergency routes will receive priority.

The city will allocate all resources to clearing these roadways first in a snow emergency situation, avoiding a city-wide shutdown like last winter’s. After the emergency routes are cleared, workers will then start clearing other roadways.

The criteria for deciding what roads would be deemed emergency routes was based on each road’s effectiveness for mass transit use as well as proximity to hospitals, police stations and fire stations to ensure that emergency services would remain in service.

Although the city is working to avoid a repeat performance, Pitt will continue with last year’s snow-removal methods.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said Pitt will not be changing its snow response practices in any way from last year. Despite the complications raised by the record-breaking snowfall of last year, he said the University feels confident in its facilities crew’s ability to keep on top of the weather.

“The difficulties in removing the snow last year were related to the magnitude of the storms and the city’s inability to clear streets and remove snow. Pitt sidewalks and privately owned streets were immediately cleared and remained so throughout the snow period. It was city-owned or maintained streets and sidewalks that were a problem,” Fedele said.

Pitt student Brian White is not convinced that only city streets were an issue last winter.

“Pitt advertises that the city is our campus. If the city has a problem, the campus has a problem. For me to make it from my dorm in Lothrop to Market Central in Towers, I should not have to worry about uncleared sidewalks. Yes, the patio of Lothrop was cleared, and so was Towers patio, but it is getting from one to the other that presents the issue,” he said.

After many problems, both in Oakland and other areas of the city, the Public Works Department was under pressure to reform. One of the biggest changes in line for this year is a list of pre-qualified and approved contractors to assist with snow removal.

Because the majority of streets in Pittsburgh have on-street parking, large plows are unable to clear all the streets. Instead, the haul-and-removal method must be used. Only City Public Works employees are allowed to salt and plow the streets, but private contractors are allowed to assist in snow removal.

The city had to hire contractors on an emergency basis last year to help get the city up and running.  This year’s addition of a pre-qualified list will help cut down on response time as well as offer a more definite course of action in a snow emergency, Kaczorowski said.

According to Kaczorowski, the changes will help cut down on response time in general and, under normal circumstances, the goal is to have the city’s roads cleared within 24 hours.

He also said that there is a flier being mailed out to all residents, which offers an overview of the new plan for this year as well as other pertinent information regarding winter preparedness.