Keeping highways open, safe top priority
Hurricane Floyd floods DOT members with work
PEF Executive Board Member John Clark, a civil engineer for the state Transportation Department (DOT) in Albany, and a team of DOT engineers and maintenance workers were ready for it.
"We were monitoring the storm through the weather services that are wired into our offices," Clark recalled. "And as we watched the storm progress up the coast, we started to prepare."
This meant making sure the trucks had all the fuel they needed, and notifying workers that they might be called back in.
When Floyd ripped through New York, the Clark and his team were already in action. "Northern Westchester and Rockland county were hardest hit by the storm," Clark said. "We were clearing trees and brush from the road, and clearing drainage features clogged with debris."
Clear drainage systems would help keep the water level down and the highways open - DOT's goal.
But Floyd delivered so much rain in just a few hours - 13 inches in some areas - that some drains couldn't handle it. A few of them washed out and the water began rising rapidly.
The DOT engineers quickly switched gears, closing roads and detouring traffic so motorists wouldn't become stranded in the high water. Still, some people did unwittingly drive into the high water and were forced to scramble out of their cars and onto their roofs, as the water swiftly rose around them.
DOT maintenance crews rescued stranded motorists with the help of a front-end loader. Clark said they saved about a half a dozen flustered people.
Good planning and around-the-clock work by DOT was the key to beginning repairs and getting the roads reopened as quickly as possible. Even after the roads were open, more work had to be done.
Culverts had to be cleared or replaced, damage to several bridges had to be repaired, as well as painstaking yard-by-yard highway assessments of secondary damage to the roads.
The DOT's quick response to Floyd's destruction was spurred on by the public. "The demand to get the roads open is very high. People get agitated when the roads are closed and put a lot of pressure on the department to get the roads open," Clark said.
PEF members responded to that pressure during and after the storm by working many extra hours. Now, in the wake of Floyd, some members feel they've been treated unfairly. For instance, some of the engineering staff who were asked to work the extra hours were not eligible for overtime.
"They are not being given comp time, either," Clark said.
The engineers were told they had to take any comp time off during the current pay period - use it immediately or lose it. But because they put pressing work commitments first, most of them lost it - two to three days, in some cases.
"No consideration was given for the special circumstances," Clark said. "These people sacrificed their time, when they wanted to be with their families during an emergency, to do this."
Even so, Clark thinks the DOT workers did an great job. Whether it was inspecting damage, coordinating repair operations, or manning the Emergency Operations Centers in different counties, the teamwork was outstanding.
"Our assistant resident engineers, who are PEF members, worked around-the-clock with the maintenance people to keep the roads clear," Clark added. "We knew people were counting on us."
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