The National Weather Service estimates the ice thickness to be about 3-6 inches on parts of all three rivers. That’s creating quite the problem for barges, loaded with road salt that is desperately needed in our region.
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As mounds of snow pile up across Western Pennsylvania, mountains of rock salt are a welcome sight. But for many municipalities, these stockpiles are shrinking fast, and the next delivery can’t come soon enough.
“A lot of our communities need a lot of salt,” said Patrick Conners, executive director of the South Hills Area Council of Governments (SHACOG). “Obviously, the deterioration of the river systems with this ice can really throw a wrench in things.”
Several inches of ice have accrued on Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers due to the bitterly cold temperatures, and the national weather service expects that ice to get even thicker in the coming weeks, as 20 barges, loaded with rock salt, make their way up the Mississippi River to the Pittsburgh area.
“It’s been several years since we’ve had a lot of ice like this on every river,” said Alicia Miller, National Weather Service hydrologist.
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SHACOG has been in contact with its salt supplier, Compass Minerals, and RiverLift, the depot in West Elizabeth where salt is brought to and shipped out from. Officials say five barges arrived there around 10 p.m. Sunday, and crews have been hard at work ever since.
“Just in the last two days, they have unloaded 3 barges that had over 45,000 tons of salt. From those barges, they were able to make 100 truckloads of deliveries yesterday to 20 different communities,” Conners said.
On Thursday, RiverLift’s crews worked to unload those other two barges, with two more slated to arrive by the end of the week. But with river conditions changing minute by minute, it’s hard to say for sure.
“We’re hoping that those barges can make it down the way to West Elizabeth and be distributed to our communities, but that’s sort of up in the air, as far as our conditions right now,” Conners said.
The goal for Thursday was for trucks to deliver salt to 15 different communities.
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