Pittsburgh region's mild winter mitigates some of the misery of 'pothole season'

Feb. 27—Earlier this month, Debbie Bey was looking for someone — anyone — willing to fix a large pothole just off William Penn Highway in Monroeville at the entrance leading to Gabe's, Sam's Club and other stores.

"I called around to Monroeville, to PennDOT, everywhere, and no one wanted to take responsibility for it," said Bey, a Monroeville resident. "Several people have damaged their cars when they've hit it."

Bey found out the pothole was the responsibility of Washington, Pa.-based Jara Group, the company that owns the property where discount chain Gabe's is located. After a little attention from a local television station, Bey said, the pothole was recently patched.

With Southwestern Pennsylvania's unusually mild winter, however, "pothole season" perhaps isn't as bad as it could be.

In Westmoreland County, Route 30 rides fairly smoothly from North Huntingdon to the Arona Road exit. Between the exit and Village Road, on either side of Greensburg, there are a handful of good-size potholes on both sides of the highway, including a couple of lengthy rows in the right eastbound lane leading to the Village Road traffic light.

Melissa Maczko, safety press officer for PennDOT's District 12, said the mild winter has offered opportunities for work crews to address other issues.

"We have various maintenance activities our crews perform when they aren't providing winter services," Maczko said. "These include cleaning inlets, picking litter, patching and other routine maintenance."

In Allegheny County, District 11 spokesman Steve Cowan said pothole patching is still part of the regular maintenance schedule, even during a mild winter.

"With the warmer temperatures and wet weather, along with multiple freeze-thaw cycles, we're expecting to see increased potholes this spring throughout our three-county region," Cowan said. "Crews will be focused on pothole patching as the need arises."

Southwestern Pennsylvania has barely recorded 15 inches of snow this winter — that is more than 17 inches below the average annual snowfall for the region, according to the National Weather Service. But the milder temperatures haven't come without interruption, evidenced by the quick transition from T-shirt-and-shorts weather last week to gusting snow 24 hours later.

"It's really this pattern we've been seeing all winter, where we're really warm and then we get one shot of cold air and we're back to really warm," National Weather Service meteorologist Jenna Lake said. "Overall, the pattern has been that we've been more mild than normal."

The average daily temperature in the Pittsburgh area since November is just above 40 degrees, a figure that has been dragged upward recently in February with three 70-degree days and five more between 55 and 60 degrees.

Local leaders are grateful for the mild winter.

Charles Stull, chairman of the Gilpin supervisors, said Friday the mild winter temperatures have kept the two full-time road crew employees working on other jobs besides filling potholes.

"I've seen less potholes this year because we're not having the freeze-thaw cycle, and the crews haven't had too much plowing this winter — knock on wood — so they're focusing on other projects," Stull said.

Stull pointed out two township roads in need of pothole maintenance: Godfrey and Aladdin roads.

"We have our eyes on some grants to completely resurface Aladdin Road in the Schenley section of the township. That road is more patchwork than paved road and hasn't been resurfaced in more than 20 years," Stull said.

In New Kensington, Councilman Tim DiMaio, who oversees the city's public works department, said they're getting some potholes but not as many this season because of the mild winter and not as much salt being used on the roads.

"You still have your normal ones that are going to pop up," he said, adding that city crews are out patching them. "As soon as the asphalt plant opens up, we'll get hot patch."

In Allegheny Township, manager Gregory Primm said rain instead of snow has spared the township from an increase in potholes this season.

"The pothole situation this year has not been as bad as previous years. We haven't experienced the continuous freeze-thaw cycle we've seen in previous winters — the primary cause for pothole creation. In winters like that, we do see a much higher number of potholes needing addressed," Primm said.

Along the Route 28 corridor, some of the roads leading in and out of the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills shopping center have fallen victim to both age and the freeze-thaw cycle, particularly sections of Village Center Drive and the road surrounding the Walmart parking lot.

Michael Czerepka, a spokesman for Pittsburgh Mills' property manager Namdar Realty, said some repair work began in early February and will continue over the coming weeks.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .