PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Pittsfield's Department of Public Services Highway Division met its match last weekend with a storm that impacted the roads for approximately four days. 

 

Last weekend marked the first serious snow event of the year in Berkshire County and significant snow accumulation mixed with plummeting temperatures made for a challenging cleanup.

 

As roads remained dangerous for some days after the snow event, residents made their concerns known.

 

"I saw and received a high number of concerns on both my personal and council Facebook pages and messenger along with a handful of phone calls and emails. A much higher volume of concern than most other issues," Pittsfield City Councilor Peter White said. 

 

As of Tuesday afternoon, White was still hearing from people about seeing some roads that still had a decent amount of packed snow on them, he said. 

 

Other members of the council including Peter Marchetti and Earl G. Persip III said that they received over 50 complaints from residents regarding the road conditions. 

 

"I think it was a huge mistake made,” Persip said. “I think the residents have every right to be angry. I'm angry. There was a major malfunction in our emergency snow services. And it's unacceptable. And it needs to be fixed and make sure it never happens again."

 

According to the Pittsfield Police Department dispatch log, there has been estimated over 90 reported accidents since the storm Friday, Dec. 23. 

 

"Out of those 90-plus accidents, it is unknown as to whether or not the causes were due to road condition and/or if weather related," Captain Thomas Dawley said. "Certainly, a majority may have been due to the road conditions and severe weather we had here."

 

Calls to the department have decreased with them only receiving one call into dispatch regarding the road conditions Tuesday afternoon. 

 

Department of Public Services & Utilities Commissioner Ricardo Morales said the combination of rapid snowfall and plummeting temperatures created a challenge for plow drivers. The Department of Public Services Highway Division was prepared for Thursday's and Friday's forecast which called for half an inch of snow in addition to a 40-degree temperature swing coming on Friday around sunset.

 

Although teams were out throughout this portion of the storm and afterward, they were not prepared for the increased snowfall that at times was coming down three inches an hour.  

 

"I'm not trying to give excuses about how we performed or not, but I'm at a loss. We did what we always do and that works. And this time we couldn't keep up with the snowfall and people driving on the road and compacting the snow," Morales said. 

 

The removal teams clocked in an estimated 700 hours of contact time and 600 hours of highway crews' time during and following the storm.

 

The department had 35 trucks active for a 12-hour shift during and following the storm. The department had about 10 to 20 contractors at any given time during the weekend. 

 

During the storm, the highway department had 12 crewmembers working to clear the streets, and immediately after, they split the crews into two shifts having six crew members prioritizing the clearing of the main streets most traveled. 

 

"Without speaking much on behalf of other towns, I do understand that we are in the same position as other towns with not having magnesium chloride dispensing equipment or the material for that matter," Morales said. "And that type of chemical worked really good this time around with evidence by the state's treatment of the state roads versus all the other municipalities…I do know, our streets are no better or worse than other nonstate municipal main streets elsewhere."

 

Prior to last weekend's storm, the city could not justify the cost of the investment of that type of equipment and material. 

 

During the storm, the department used its hot mix, made up of sand and rock salt. Morales said this material does not effectively work in temperatures below 15 degrees. It does however provide traction for the cars. 

 

To assist with breaking down the packed snow, workers combined their hot mix with calcium chloride, which helps lower the freezing temperature of the ice, water, or snow and prevents it from freezing at higher temperatures.

 

They continued to use hot mix into Monday and Tuesday seeing more effective results due to the warmer temperatures. 

 

The state pretreats the roads with magnesium fluoride which can last on the road for several days.

 

"We also pretreat our roads but for this particular storm, the way we do pretreatment did not work because we rely on dry pavement and dry weather," Morales said. "Because if we put down rock salt on the rain event, it'll wash away. So it was raining. We couldn't drop our pretreatment rocksalt because it would wash away."

 

If it wasn't raining the days leading up to the storm the road conditions would not have been as hazardous because the pretreatment would have worked, he said.

 

"We did put some rock salt in a few places like hills and stuff and we noticed that it was just washing away so it wasn't working as well."

 

Marchetti filed a petition with the mayor and the commissioner requesting a full review of what happened. It was communicated to the council that the mayor would need more time and is not available during the Jan. 10 meeting, Persip said. 

 

The counselors have been told to expect a report during its meeting on Jan. 24 explaining why it happened and how it can be avoided in the future. 

 

"I received well over 50 calls over the weekend. We are looking for a comprehensive report of details of what happened and how it can be avoided in the future," Marchetti said.