Water line fix is cold job
Conversation at the water cooler can return to the usual fare now that the Big Freeze is retreating into the background.
But while the area was in the freezer — the temperature did not venture north of zero for 23 hours starting at 4:30 p.m. Monday — nothing else mattered quite as much.
Despite the challenges the extreme cold put up in front of people, they managed to get through them.
Workers from Cranberry Township's public works department worked nearly all day Tuesday in shifts to repair a broken water line along Route 19 in Cranberry Township. Workers would work in the cold for a short time before warming up in a bus that was brought in by Butler Transit Authority.
The line break was reported about 2 a.m. Tuesday and repairs were completed sometime after 4 p.m.
The break affected water pressure to businesses along Route 19 between Old Freedom and Rochester roads.
Cemetery workers whose job of opening grave sites is made harder by low temperatures freezing the ground, got a break from the snow covering.According to Paul Simms at Butler County Memorial Park Cemetery and Mausoleum, the snow that blanketed the ground insulated it against freezing.Road crews that didn't have a snowfall to deal with still had work to do.John Hines, public works director at Slippery Rock Township, said that plow trucks have been on the road continually.“There's an extreme amount of work to do right now,” Hines said.He said that road salt does not work well in extremely cold temperatures, so trucks have to constantly keep an eye on ice. Trucks put down anti-skid material and plowed over snow drifts to keep them from packing down and turning to ice.Hines also said that the cold has caused the hydraulic systems in the plow trucks to move more slowly than usual.“I don't think that I've ever experienced it,” Hines said.In Center Township, plow trucks are kept in a heated building, so there were no issues in starting the equipment.However, public works director Mark Lauer said that the garage door was frozen shut Tuesday morning, a condition that quickly was remedied.On Tuesday, road crews arrived two hours early and spent part of the day making sure that areas with snow drifts were clear.Since salt is not very effective below 15 degrees, trucks did not use much Monday night or Tuesday.“When it gets cold, we cut back on everything,” Lauer said.Still other workers from a natural gas drilling crew decided to stay over in Butler instead of driving home. The five workers spent the night at the Comfort Inn in Butler.“We have a pretty good reputation with the gas well companies,” hotel manager Vicky Palmer said. “If somebody is in need of a room, they call us pretty quickly.”Palmer said that some of the hotel's guests had dead batteries in their automobiles Tuesday morning, but she said a “community effort” among staff and other guests got everyone on the road eventually.
At Lake Arthur in Moraine State Park, the lake as of Tuesday afternoon had about 4 inches of ice, and that amount was growing.However, assistant park manager Jake Weiland said that the lake has dozens of tributaries and underground springs, which leads to ice being inconsistent.“Anytime that there is moving water, there's going to be weaker ice,” Weiland said.A frozen lake leads to ice fishing, but Weiland said the park generally recommends 6 inches of ice for that activity to take place.Also, due to the extremely cold weather, it was not a good day for ice fishing.“It is brutal,” Weiland said.Up in Foxburg, the Allegheny River was flowing, but there were plenty of ice chunks going along with it.
AAA service calls in Western Pennsylvania were three times as frequent as a typical winter weekday. By 9 a.m. Tuesday, the agency had already received 800 calls.Bevi Powell, Pittsburgh AAA spokesman, said a large number of calls in the region on Tuesday were battery related.Aside from starting the car up to let it warm, she said it's also important to check air pressure in tires.“Cold air affects tires, and causes tires to go flat,” Powell said.
The Grapevine Center on Elm Street on Tuesday saw a few more than the usual 30 people who spend part of their days getting warm there.Justin McMillen opted to stop by Tuesday. Cupping a mug of steaming coffee, he usually goes to the recreational space a couple times a week.“I usually hang out, drink a couple cups of coffee, things like that,” said McMillen, 30, of Butler.He works a job at night, and he sometimes goes to a friend's house between his stay at Grapevine and his shift.Eagle staff writers Jared Stonesifer, Kate Malongowski, Megan Sperling and John Bojarski and bureau editor Jeff Forward contributed to this report.
