Some last-minute road salt deliveries Thursday will get a few Allegheny County towns through this weekend’s expected winter storm, but officials still may have to take a hard look at which roads get that salt and which may not.
Until Thursday afternoon, Springdale was “critically low” on salt supplies, said Borough Manager Terry Carcella. The shipment Springdale received should be enough to get the borough through the weekend.
The problem, affecting dozens of towns in Allegheny, Butler and Washington counties, is late salt deliveries.
Springdale Solicitor Craig Alexander told TribLive that Compass Minerals America, the trucking company Springdale contracts through the South Hills Area Council of Governments (SHACOG) to provide road salt deliveries, has fallen behind on deliveries by about a month.
Patrick Connors, executive director of SHACOG, said the council was made aware of the delayed deliveries on Jan. 14. He said calls and emails from affected municipalities began rolling in the next day.
“We’ve been in communication with those towns,” Connors said. “We’re trying to be that bridge and let Compass know about the late deliveries.”
The situation is worrisome as the region braces for what the National Weather Service says could be from 6 to 12 inches of snow Saturday night through Sunday. The region hasn’t had a storm drop that much snow in a day since 2010.
About 99 communities are part of a purchasing alliance run by SHACOG, which provides savings to participating municipalities by purchasing materials and equipment in bulk. It has become the most economical way for communities to buy road salt each year.
Connors said the salt coming to the SHACOG joint purchasing communities via Compass is being shipped by barge from Louisiana. Connors said communities have drawn on their salt allotments much faster than predicted because of previous wintry weather. New orders to replenish salt supplies then came much sooner and at a higher volume than either SHACOG or Compass were expecting, Connors said.
“We’re disappointed (Compass) wasn’t more prepared,” Connors said.
Jim Hughes, vice president of Compass Minerals, did not return multiple calls requesting comment Thursday.
Connors said SHACOG has been in daily communication with Compass and a number of salt barges were dispatched to the area. They’re expected to arrive at the end of January, Connors said.
More on the coming storm
• How much snow is predicted for Western Pa. this weekend?
• Crews brace for snow, PennDOT sets priority routes for weekend storm
Getting through the storm
While emergency salt shipments are handy, they won’t do much good for communities beyond this weekend.
Brackenridge officials plan to do the best they can with what they have — about half of what they ordered.
Borough Manager Chad Edwards said, “things will be running tight, depending on the circumstances.”
The borough ordered four loads from Compass as part of the SHACOG purchasing agreement. They received two loads of salt this week.
“We will do our best to use what we have efficiently,” Edwards said.
In Plum, Assistant Borough Manager DJ Housley said the borough has enough salt to make it through the weekend weather, but it may soon have to enter “conservation mode.”
That means a scaled-back volume of salt on the roads and a focus on hills and intersections, he said. Plum Public Works also has anti-skid material purchased in anticipation of the storm.
In a typical year, Housley said Plum, a SHACOG joint purchasing member, would receive its salt orders in a day or two.
But the borough still is waiting for about 200 tons of salt from an order the borough placed in early January. What it has received came weeks behind schedule.
At the beginning of the season, Housley said the borough appeared to be in good shape, but now it may have to seek salt from PennDOT or other municipalities.
That’s all while other municipalities have been making calls to Plum to try to buy some of the borough’s reserves, according to Housley.
“We’re talking strategy to make what we have last,” Housley said.
The game plan
“Virtually everybody in the (Allegheny) Valley is in the same predicament as Springdale is,” Alexander said.
Communities will continually plow roads, but they’ll likely save their salt for after the bulk of the snow has fallen, according to Bruno Moretti, coordinator for Allegheny Valley Regional Emergency Management Agency, which covers Harmar, Cheswick, Springdale and Springdale Township.
Plowing after salt has been spread only wastes what salt communities have by removing it from the road.
Most officials said their plowing plans boil down to first making sure intersections and steep hills are salted, them moving on to the most traveled main roads and then to residential streets.
For PennDOT, tasked with clearing thousands of miles of state-owned roads, there also is a plan.
Spokeswoman Melissa Maczko interstates I-70 and -79 are priorities, while other 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 secondary state roads.
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 field 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.
It’ll be a different game plan for towns not using salt.
Gilpin uses ash rather than salt when it snows because it has nowhere to store salt reserves throughout the year. They use ash cinders to help drivers keep traction should they find themselves on the road in the storm, said Supervisor Kevin Miller, the township’s road maintenance chair.
Miller said the workers’ plan is to keep Gilpin’s main roads in good shape since the snow is predicted to be fast and heavy throughout Sunday. They’ll be heading out when the snow starts and staying out while treating the roads until the snow stops. The township will spread ash every time a road is plowed to give drivers as much traction as possible.
“When you’re getting that much snow an hour, the main thing you can do is keep your main arteries in good shape,” Miller said. “We’ll be out the whole time. … We’ll stay out as long as we have to.”
Enough for now
Indiana Township Manager Dan Anderson is thankful his municipality expanded its salt storage facility last year.
The township orders through SHACOG and has been waiting about three weeks for its most recent delivery.
“But yes, we have enough to make it through the weekend,” he said.
O’Hara officials believe township roads will be manageable.
Most of O’Hara’s salt supply comes through COSTARS, the state’s cooperative purchasing program. Only about 500 tons is ordered through SHACOG, Township Manager Julie Jakubec said.
“We should be okay,” Jakubec said of the impending storm.
Long-standing plowing schedules are followed for the township’s 40 miles of road, Jakubec said.
“We have snow routes that our drivers plow,” she said. “There is no deviation unless there is a (life-threatening) emergency and a road needs cleared.”
West Deer Township Manager Daniel Mator said the township is “doing fine at the moment.”
“We utilize more than one contract, fill our shed in the autumn and stay on top of ordering,” Mator said in an email to TribLive.
He said West Deer has about 3,000 tons of salt on hand and has another 750 tons on order.
Bridget Rider, an administrative assistant in Oakmont, said borough leadership feels prepared for the impending snow.
“We’re in good shape. We’re prepared for the big storm,” Rider said. “We started getting some shipments (of salt) in earlier this week.”
Blawnox Manager Cory Dennison said the borough isn’t facing any challenges with salt, even in the face of a weekend storm that could dump an inch of snow every hour.
“We have enough salt to get through the weekend,” Dennison said. “We made and received an order of salt earlier in the month and we had no problems ordering from Morton or receiving the salt.”
Still, the scramble for salt is becoming more dire since news of the impending storm.
Dennison said he was on hold with the supplier more than an hour Wednesday while trying place another order.
The borough is fortunate that Freeport Road, the most heavily traveled in the borough, is state-owned and maintained by PennDOT.
Dennison said borough crews works diligently to keep the rest of the roads clear.
“The workers usually start at the top of the mountain and work down towards the river, but it depends on where the most attention is needed,” he said.
Tarentum Borough Manager Dwight Boddorf said leadership does not anticipate any complications regarding their salt supply.
“We are well stocked and prepared for the upcoming storm, and our public works team has already been staging equipment and materials in advance of the forecasted snow,” Boddorf said in an email to TribLive. “As with most municipalities, we continue to monitor usage during prolonged or severe weather events, but there are no current concerns regarding availability for this storm.”
Lower Burrell Councilman David Stoltz said everything is ready to go in the city for the upcoming snowstorm.
The city has 700 tons of salt on hand and 450 tons on order, Stoltz said.
“They’ve been delivering salt to us all day,” he said Thursday.
Stoltz said Lower Burrell prioritizes main roads and bus routes first when plowing.
TribLive reporters Tawnya Panizzi, Kellen Stepler and James Engel contributed to this article.