This week’s deep freeze is chilling operations and business along the waterways in and around the region’s waterways and the Port of Pittsburgh, the second-biggest inland port in the United States and a key economic driver.
Plunging temperatures led the U.S. Coast Guard on Jan. 23 to issue a warning due to ice accumulation on the rivers but the weekend snowstorm and then below-zero low temperatures overnight have led to the formation of even more widespread ice. That has led to restrictions on the rivers as well as much less activity than normal for January.
“It’s rough right now. This is a once-in-a-decade type of freeze,” said Shane Checkan, head of the navigation committee of the Waterways Association of Pittsburgh and general manager of Industry Terminal & Salvage Co. in Beaver County. “We haven’t seen this kind of ice since 2015, 2018. It’s definitely putting a real constraint on us.”
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