SYRACUSE, N.Y. - An exceptionally cold and stormy winter in the Midwest, South and Northeast has forced cities and states to put road crews on double shifts to treat and clear roadways, and to purchase asphalt to try to keep up with an epidemic of potholes. The crews have bought and spread so much salt that there is a shortage in the mid-Atlantic states. And as costs mount, more storms approach.
On Saturday, another round of snow made its way into the Northeast as the region continued to dig out from the previous storm.
In Syracuse, N.Y., century-old water mains ruptured behind City Hall and burst in residential areas and under the city’s bar and restaurant district. The mayor said she has personally reported three breaks, while exhausted crews work 18-hour shifts in subfreezing temperatures to repair the damage.
In Detroit, a break in a 30-inch water main flooded a southwest neighborhood Tuesday, turning streets into streams and stalling cars in water above their hubcaps. As city workers pumped away the water and police officers and firefighters rescued stranded motorists, icebergs formed above the blacktop, locking some vehicles into place until the next thaw.
New England was expected to be hit hardest by the latest blast of winter weather. The National Weather Service said 10-14 inches of snow were expected in eastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island. Connecticut was expected to see 8-10 inches along its Rhode Island border.
At its peak, the storm will dump snow at the rate of 3 inches per hour, meteorologist William Babcock said.
The weekend snowstorm follows another storm that took snow and ice to the East Coast, caused at least 25 deaths and left hundreds of thousands without power. Parts of New York and Vermont ended up with more than 2 feet of snow.
The latest storm was expected to spawn blizzard conditions in several places along the Massachusetts coastline.
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh announced that the city would deploy more than 600 snowplows, trucks and other equipment by Saturday evening to deal with the storm. He said additional police officers, firefighters and paramedics were to be on hand throughout the storm to ensure public safety.
The increased spending on employee overtime, contractors and supplies to combat the weather have put added strain on local and state governments still struggling to recover from the recession.
“Cities still do not have a lot of cash available, so this particular storm season is having a really severe impact on their budgets,” said James Brooks, a director for community development and infrastructure at the National League of Cities. “We’ve also had many years of disinvestment in things like roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, which makes them more vulnerable when something like this happens.”
Stephanie Miner, the Syracuse mayor, said such things are too often overlooked when politicians want to spend money on economic development. “You don’t cut ribbons for new water mains,but that’s really what matters,” she said.
Northern regions tend to have older, more brittle pipes and bridges, while areas farther south tend to be ill equipped for snowdrifts and subfreezing temperatures that can snarl traffic and buckle pavement. Officials across the country said the costs would be steep, but many said they would not worry about tabulating them until the crisis was over.
“We don’t ask those questions, but we do keep receipts,” Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina said in an interview. “At this point in time, you’re putting out the fires.”
He said he expected to tap into the state’s emergency fund to pay for storm response. Local governments also will have to bear some of the burden, he said, and should not expect the state to pick up the whole tab.
Whoever is paying, the repair work will be extensive and expensive.
In Baltimore, 353 water mains ruptured in January, about one-third as many as in all of 2013. South Carolina officials estimated that a single weather system last month drained $2 million from the state’s budget. A 137-year-old main that burst in Manhattan turned some of the toniest streets into a temporary Venice, and a break in Boston’s Chinatown nearly swallowed a public-works truck.
Chicago budgeted $20 million for 2014 to plow snow and salt roads, but with more than a month of winter remaining, it has already spent $25 million. City crews are filling potholes at double the rate of last year - which means buying twice as much patching material for that purpose - yet drivers are still doing what look like drunken swerves to avoid yawning gaps in the streets. So far, according to the National Weather Service, the city has had its third-snowiest and fourth-coldest winter since the weather service began keeping track in 1872.
Pennsylvania has used road salt at a pace 24 percent ahead of normal, an additional cost of more than $8 million so far, and on Thursday, Gov. Tom Corbett deployed elements of the National Guard to help with emergency response, which means another expense.
Maine’s Department of Transportation ordinarily spends about $15.7 million a year clearing roads of snow, but “right now we’re already up to $21.8 million,” said Ted Talbot, a department spokesman. “If it continues along this line, we’d have to curb some spring maintenance, like tree trimming, some signage potentially.”
Cold weather is tough on water systems because as the water chills, metal pipes contract. At the same time, frost and ice cause the ground to expand, adding pressure.
In addition to the direct costs to governments, harsh weather can mean lower tax revenue by slowing economic activity. A downtown Syracuse water-main break on Water Street left a deep crater in front of the Miss Syracuse diner, surrounded by Water Department barricades, deterring customers.
Meanwhile, in Maine, forecasts called for 12-18 inches of snow in some areas that was to begin Saturday night. The weather service warned that heavy snow and strong winds could create hazardous driving conditions.
Southeastern New Hampshire was to be under a winter storm warning through today that could mean 6-10 inches of new snow. The weather service said 1-2 inches of snow were possible Saturday with as much as 8 inches overnight.
Farther south, New York City was forecast see 2-4 inches.
And the costs keep rising.
Information for this article was contributed by Jesse McKinley, Richard Perez-Pena, Jesse McKinley, Richard Perez-Pena, Steven Yaccino,Alan Blinder, Jess Bidgood and Dan Frosch of The New York Times and by Rodrique Ngowi of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/16/2014