Emergency crews across Westmoreland County are ready for snowfall Friday, the weekend

Crews across Westmoreland County are ready to respond before the snow even begins Friday morning.

“Trucks are loaded, the equipment is ready to go. We have five trucks ready to go,” said Dante DeCario, Westmoreland County Public Works Director.

DeCario said the county needs to add 52 miles of road. That’s actually three miles less than the city streets of Greensburg.

“We are more spread out, but we have roads throughout the county,” DeCario noted.

The county will pick up its crews starting at 4 a.m. Friday. Four will start a 12-hour shift and then be replaced by four more. Everyone remains on call if necessary.

“They’ll cover all (the roads) equally, but we tend to get more in the Mount Pleasant area, on the ridges, so those cluster more, just because of their location, the elevation,” he said. “They will continually keep all of our 52 miles clear and treat as needed.”

Meanwhile, the city of Greensburg is calling crews starting at 3 a.m. Friday.

“We have nine trucks ready to go, we have them loaded with salt ready to go,” said Tom Bell, Greensburg Public Works Director. “In a normal operation, we use 100 to 125 tons of salt to get around the city.”

Bell said a truck is operational in every district of the city.

“We try to cover most of the hills right away,” Bell said. “It’s a challenge here in the city of Greensburg because our 7th and 8th districts are nothing but hills.”

But preparation is key – as is timing. Bell hopes most of the snow will fall during the day when the sun comes up.

“When everything happens during the day, the hardest part is keeping traffic moving and the low salt in check, which I think helps us tremendously,” Bell said.

Bell also told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek that it takes about three to three and a half hours to salt all 55 miles of Greensburg city road.

Depending on how quickly the snow falls, the first round of salt should be on the roads around 6 a.m., just in time for the morning commute.

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