In the borough of Export, Stephen Opsitnick Jr. spent much of Wednesday leaning over the open hood of a public works truck, checking oil and hydraulic fluid levels with the deliberate focus of a man preparing for a long siege.
As the head of public works, Opsitnick and his single colleague are the only line of defense for the borough’s hilly terrain, which is forecast to receive between 7 and 10 inches of snow beginning Saturday afternoon.
Up to 15 inches of accumulation is possible in the mountains.
While Opsitnick’s team manages a footprint of less than half a square mile, the scale of the task expands exponentially at the state level.
To maintain the 3,627 miles of state highway within its specific four-county territory, PennDOT District 12 is preparing to deploy its full arsenal of 200 trucks across Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
Drivers throughout the four-county region are assigned to specific routes; once they finish clearing one direction, they immediately turn around to plow the opposing lane.
Spokeswoman Melissa Maczko stated that the interstates I-70 and I-79 are priorities, while trucks are clearing major arteries including routes 30, 51, 56 and 66. Those are being plowed at the same time as the three-digit routes — such as 119, 356, 366, 819, 981 and 982, which are a priority over the secondary routes.
The plan remains fluid based on the storm’s intensity. The operational strategy is a game of constant rotation.
“Depending on where the storm hits the hardest, we may have to pull drivers from a secondary route and go to the main route,” Maczko said.
A team of dispatchers working in each of the four counties fields calls from the public, Maczko said. While crews will pretreat roads, plow throughout the duration of the event and remain active afterward, the safest course of action for the public is to stay home, Maczko said.
“We’re encouraging motorists not to travel during the snowstorm and to allow extra time,” Maczko said.
Community effort
Local preparation for snow removal involves more than just mechanical checks. The bitter cold has already begun to complicate logistics for smaller departments like Opsitnick’s.
“Some of our salt was hard and clumped because of the cold, so we had to pull it out and crush it a little to get it into the truck.”
Opsitnick was out Thursday morning treating slippery spots after freezing rain overnight, but his primary concern is the incoming accumulation.
“With the snow we’re getting, it looks like it’s going to be a lot of plowing, and then some salting along the hills with some anti-skid mixed in,” he said.
Despite the small size of the department, the strategy remains intensive.
“We prepare just like the bigger guys, except there’s only two of us. If it gets really bad, we can call on some extra help, but we’re prepared.”
The challenges are magnified in neighboring municipalities such as Unity, where crews maintain 164 miles of roads across 69 square miles. Township Supervisor Mike O’Barto reported that the township has been ordering salt all week to stay ahead of the weather.
“We are holding our own at this point. We’ll be able to take on the storm,” O’Barto said, noting that Unity has already managed two snowfalls in the last 24 hours.
The township has 1,000 tons of salt on order from Three Rivers Marine & Rail Terminal, but transport remains a bottleneck. Tri-axles can only deliver 20 to 22 tons at a time to the public works building.
“In a perfect world, we would get 200-to-300 tons,” O’Barto said.
J.D. Shearer, owner of Three Rivers Marine, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Keeping a sense of humor
In Hempfield, Public Works Director Austin Erhard leads a crew of 30 that is responsible for 250 miles of road. The department’s goal is to keep main arteries open before moving into residential neighborhoods as the snow tapers.
“We will be ready, we have a salt supply, we have additional salt already on order, so we’re trying to stay ahead of some of those delays that you may have heard or read about in the news,” Erhard said.
If snowfall reaches the heavier end of predictions, Erhard noted that salting becomes secondary to mechanical removal.
“The snow rate is not going to allow that salt to do anything. … A majority of our operation Sunday morning is going to be plowing and just staying out ahead of it that way.”
Erhard offered a moment of levity during a supervisors’ meeting this week regarding the fluctuating forecasts: “It is going to snow this weekend, we will get anywhere from 5 to 24 inches of snow,” he joked.
County-level preparations have reached a peak as well. Westmoreland County Public Safety Director Roland “Bud” Mertz confirmed that officials have held coordination calls with the National Weather Service and the Pennsylvania National Guard.
The county’s 911 center will increase staffing levels beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday and continuing through Monday.
“We’re telling residents to stay home and prepare for the heavy snow and cold,” Mertz said.