During the past three weeks, PennDOT's Bureau of Office Services has opened five new replacement salt storage buildings for use during this season's winter operations.
The buildings are located in Ridgway (Elk County), Blossburg (Tioga County), Courtdale (Luzerne County) and Natrona Heights (Allegheny County) and Armell (Washington County). The availability of these buildings enables our county maintenance staff to provide more efficient and timely winter operations for the travelling public.
The immediate need for these new replacement salt storage buildings became necessary when the previous buildings had to be closed during last winter due to structural damage caused by excessive snow loads on the roofs and other winter-related damages. During the Spring 2021, the buildings were fast-tracked into design with an accelerated construction schedule that started in August 2021.
These glue-laminated, truss design winter material storage buildings feature concrete walls, high interior clearances, LED lighting, maintenance free and recycled products, safety warning signs and material fill height markings. This new design of the glue-laminated building is how the Department will eventually replace older hi-arch gambrel and husky style buildings moving forward. PennDOT now has a total of ten buildings statewide featuring this new design in its inventory of over 1,700 various types of winter material storage buildings.
Crews are excited to have these new buildings this winter, and the Bureau of Office Services is pleased to help support the needs of the Districts and the traveling public at these locations.