Road repairs likely to cost more after Pittsburgh's bitter winter
WHITEHALL, Pa. (KDKA) — Road repairs will likely cost more come spring because of the damage caused by the recent winter weather. The freeze-thaw cycle weakens the asphalt, allowing moisture to creep in, revealing large cracks and craters.
KDKA Consumer Investigator Meghan Schiller traveled to one Pittsburgh-area borough to ask how they're handling the bumpier-than-usual ride.
Some neighbors along West Lawnview in Whitehall liken their street to the surface of the moon.
"It does seem exceptionally bad this year," said neighbor Ellen Murray. "It's a lovely street but really needs a little bit of attention."
One post in the Whitehall Community Facebook page recently received a lot of traction, asking if people can recognize their street's cracks.
"You can see there aren't too many potholes here, you won't lose a tire here, right? But it's more of the heaving and breaking up," said Whitehall Mayor Jim Nowalk.
KDKA-TV took to the streets with Nowalk. Walking along West Lawnview, he admits that it's not what you want to see but there's a good reason behind it.
"To quantify it, 20 out of the 31 days in January were below freezing," Nowalk said. "What that means is that the frost line can go deeper and deeper."
Deeper frostlines mean deeper cracks and hopefully things settle when it warms up. But Nowalk said it's going to cost local communities big money come spring.
"We've always made our roads a high priority," Nowalk said. "We have $500,000 budgeted for this year. Now you can imagine that when we have a winter like this, what we were thinking in the fall might not be what actually occurs."
He says soon the process of ranking the worst to best streets will begin.
"We will definitely pave all the worst roads in Whitehall. We have a systematic program where there are four different regions where our public works work, and the public works supervisor will ask the employees that work there, 'give me your four, five worst roads.'"
"If you are a resident of Whitehall and you firmly believe you have the worst or somewhere on the top, can you just call?" KDKA-TV's Meghan Schiller asked.
"I'm glad you asked that. Yeah, anybody that has a particular concern about their road should refer that to the borough administrative offices," Nowalk said.
He said residents are already calling and speaking out about their streets in council meetings, but neighbors like Murray say she's thinking positively about living on what some deem the roughest road.
"Well, that means we should be at the top of the list for repairs," Murray said.
