Pittsburgh City Workers Resuming Outdoor Tasks

PITTSBURGH, PA - The slow process of returning Pittsburgh to an even semi-normal state will begin Friday when city public works employees and members of several other departments will resume outdoor tasks that were suspended because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The restart of the public works, Mobility and Infrastructure and Permits, Licenses and Inspections comes as Gov. Tom Wolf allows general construction activity to resume and a week before parts of the state are expected to resume limited activities.

“We know our residents and our workforce want life in Pittsburgh to return to normal, but we’re still have a long way to go, with science and data as our guides," Mayor Bill Peduto said in a release. "In the meantime we have determined it is safe to slowly begin some work, with full protections for our workers in place.

City workers returning to outdoor tasks will be screened before the start of each shirt, will observe social distancing, will have work gloves and masks, will be provided hand sanitizer at job sites and will have their trucks and equipment regularly sanitized.

Crews will rotate one week one-one week off work schedules that will limit crowding at workplaces and help employees manage child care issues.

The Department of Public Work work will include:

• Forestry tree removal and pruning
• Street sweeping
• Clean & liens
• Vegetation control and removing downed branches
• Debris removal: sewer grates, bump outs, pools, etc.
• Step repairs
• Board ups
• Parks maintenance
• Pothole patching
• Yard debris drop off locations reopening (Tues-Sat, 7 am-3pm)
• Citywide curbside yard debris pick up (rescheduled for May 16)

At Mobility and Infrastructure, work will include:

• Line striping maintenance
• Crosswalk and stop bar maintenance
• Sign maintenance
• Signal operations and maintenance
• Paving
• Speed humps
• Handicap ramps

Permits, Licenses and Inspections will resume building inspections following Centers for Disease Control, Department of Health and city guidelines.