Road crews battle the weather to keep the city moving – YourErie

Road crews battle the weather to keep the city moving while cleaning up in the wake of Winters mixed mess.

Here is how the Erie City Streets Department is working during a snow storm.

Its hard to drive through a snow storm or to shovel snow to clear your driveway.

Erie City Streets Department is doing their part by working around the clock to plow the streets.

Keeping safe during a snow storm is hard to do especially if you have to travel in your car or shovel your driveway.

Im 64 at the end of this month so I dont need to be pushing heavy snow. I dont need to have a heart attack out here, said Mark Andrews, Erie Resident.

Once you get out of the driveway, theres another challenge.

Its kind of bad out here, but I think the ice is more bad than the snow. Its what is under the snow thats bad, said Drewey Williams, Erie Resident.

Its that mix that has made the latest storm unique. Its also forced the Erie Streets Bureau to work around the clock.

The bureau allowed us to ride along as one of the citys plows cleared the roads on Tuesday night.

Weve prepared for this storm. We had the trucks in and we serviced them all, checked all the fluid levels, the blade bolts, sprains and everything. We made sure all the spreaders were working properly. Everything was maintained and ready to go, said Steve Sornberger, Bureau Chief of Streets.

The Erie City Streets Department uses trucks such as this one to plow through the streets to not only let people drive through safely, but also for first responders.

This plow is actually 12 feet wide, and this is eight. So we can cover a 20 foot sloth of road going one way and we use this on main runs so we can go down the road and clear a big sloth with one shot, said Sornberger.

The interesting thing about those big plow trucks is that they have a mixture called brine. So what is it?

Brine is a condensed liquid of salt and water. This is then released while salting the roads.

Once on direct pavement it will create a barrier between any new fresh coating of snow, so the next time they replow the same spot it is easier to remove.

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Road crews battle the weather to keep the city moving - YourErie