Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor on Monday declared a state of emergency as the city struggles to clear its streets of roughly a foot of snow with dozens of snowplows out of commission.
That emergency declaration allows the city to call in private contractors to augment the city’s workforce in treating roads that remain blanketed in a thick layer of snow after a massive snowstorm struck Sunday.
The mayor did not immediately provide a number of how many additional plows will be deployed as part of the effort.
“Safety’s a priority,” O’Connor said during a press conference Downtown from the City-County Building. “That’s the reason we’re doing this. This is about the safety of the residents of the city of Pittsburgh.”
O’Connor said the city’s crews were working around-the-clock and “doing their very best” — but when 37 trucks broke down overnight, officials had no choice but to call in reinforcements.
“We were doing a very good job until we lost a lot of our equipment,” he said.
The city started the storm with 95 plows and salt trucks on hand, the mayor said. The city’s maintenance garage is staying open 24 hours a day to work on getting the trucks that are currently out of service back on the roads.
The outside contractors the mayor is calling on for assistance won’t just plow the roads. They’ll also be hauling snow out of neighborhoods and business districts.
“We understand streets haven’t been touched, and we’re getting to them,” O’Connor said. “But we just ask everyone to be patient.”
O’Connor said he could offer “no time frame” for when all roads would be passable.
