Erie County is entering some of its hottest days so far this year, and the weather is starting to affect road construction.
The high heat index means employees are taking extra water breaks and ending shifts early to avoid overheating. The Department of Public Works has also added ice machines and coolers around the county’s districts, DPW Commissioner Bill Geary said.
“We have supervisors that are watching, monitoring … water intake, as well as, you know, temperatures, and we're abiding by what National Weather Service is setting out," he said. "But if we start seeing, you know, people are in heat distress, they're not taking in enough water, they're not perspiring, we definitely (have to) call timeout.”
Geary adds that asphalt is taking longer to cool enough to solidify, which is further slowing progress. But the slower pace is mostly offset since the county has extra days scheduled in its plans to account for weather conditions.
Another factor to contend with is the increased traffic leading into Fourth of July weekend. Having more vehicles on the road means drivers need to use greater patience, especially when interacting with road workers, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said.
“And then when they’re out there trying to fix the roads, they get yelled at because they inconvenience somebody, because they're fixing the roads. Instead of yelling at them, thank them," he said. "Thank them for doing a difficult job. They want to repair these roads, they want to get on and move on to the next one, and they certainly don't want to deal with abuse from the public.”
He adds that the county chooses about 100 miles for road projects annually. The list for prioritizing roads depends on level of need and amount of usual traffic. If two roads are in similar condition, the one with heavier traffic will be repaired first, Poloncarz explained.
