Norwalk DPW struggles to balance safety, salt shortage

NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk’s new shipment of road salt will be parsed out sparingly, Norwalk Department of Public Works Director Hal Alvord said Wednesday. DPW crews are not pre-treating the roads with the latest weather event rolling in, but are holding the salt to be able to prevent freezing roads Thursday evening, he said.

The DPW has gotten enough road salt to last one storm, he said.

The unusually harsh winter nationwide has made it difficult for road salt distributors to keep up with the demand, and shortages have been reported from the Midwest to New England.

“We got 356 tons,” he said. “We are not pre-treating. We are not going to salt schools or city building parking lots or driveways. We are not going to salt while we are plowing. We’re going to conserve our salt because we have no idea when we’re going to get more.”

Mayor Harry Rilling has declared a snow emergency effective at 8 p.m. Alvord said. At 4 p.m., he said, the weather forecast was “still all over the place.”

“The Weather Service says 1 to 2 inches before sunrise, 2 to 4 inches during the day – but that could turn to rain or sleet/rain, freezing rain, all that kind of stuff, and then it’s going to go back to snow again. So the overall forecast here is 4 to 9 inches. Then it’s going to freeze again tomorrow night so we’re going to conserve as much salt as we can for the ice that’s going to form after dark Thursday night.”