MEADVILLE — Patching potholes, clearing ditches and readying equipment for spring projects: Those are a few of the ways area crews have been keeping busy in recent days as Mother Nature’s decidedly spring-like behavior has caused road departments to start switching gears.

Tribune reporters have asked local road officials for some input on how their departments are making use of the time and saving on materials that, at this point in most years, are being spent contending with a whole lot more of Ol’ Man Winter than what’s been seen recently around the region.

As of late last week, the state Department of Transportation had used a total of approximately 11,700 tons of road salt and anti-skid materials on the 910 miles of state-maintained roads in Crawford County, according to county PennDOT Manager Jim Hepler.

And if local weather conditions continue to be more spring-like than wintry in coming weeks, it appears PennDOT could be on course to use much less than the 25,337 combined tons of materials Hepler said was needed to keep the county’s roadways safe during the winter of 2011, when as much as 200-plus inches of snow hammered parts of the county.

But of course, there are no guarantees when it comes to winter in northwestern Pennsylvania.

“Mother Nature could turn her back on us tomorrow,” Hepler said — in fact, maybe even today. And “when you’re flirting with (temperatures in) the mid-30s, mid-40s,” he added, a rain can quickly become a freezing rain, and a freezing rain can quickly give way to more snow.

“It’s hard to predict” what may happen from one day to the next, Hepler said. Relying on long-range forecasts, experience and other tools, “we look for the next storm, and get ready.”

In the meantime, Hepler said, PennDOT crews, like municipal road crews around the county, have been working on some early pothole-patching and other roadway maintenance projects more typically seen in the springtime.

Less winter weather means less overtime work for the 100-plus PennDOT road workers and equipment operators as well as local road crews in Crawford County — but some are experiencing benefits of a different kind. “We get to spend more time with our families” this year, PennDOT employee Cris Woolstrum said recently. “There’s a bright side to everything, I guess.”

Nearby in the City of Meadville, officials said their biggest weather-related problem of late is figuring out what to do with all the salt.

“It’s a nice problem to have,” Jim Cooper, the City of Meadville’s new assistant public works director, said last week. “We’ll figure out where to put it.”

On an annual basis, Meadville uses in the neighborhood of 3,000 tons of salt, which is purchased under the state contract at a price ranging from $43 to $52 per ton. Since city officials purchase salt under the state contract, that means they have an obligation to take between 60 percent and 140 percent of the salt they ordered.

If the weather continues to be mild, salt usage would obviously be down significantly from the winter of 2010-11.

This year, however, the surplus will be even greater. Physical changes in the way city trucks apply salt to road surfaces is also cutting the traditional rate of salt consumption in half.

Cooper, a PennDOT retiree who became a part-time city staffer in mid-2011, quickly realized the amount of salt the city was using greatly exceeded the amount necessary for the number of street-miles being covered.

A closer examination revealed the nature of the problem. “The way the trucks were set up, we were using close to three times the national standard of salt application,” he explained. Although city workers were doing the best they could with what they had, the hydraulic controls on the city’s trucks simply weren’t capable of providing the desired results. “The settings we needed were unachievable with the equipment we have,” he said.

With a 35-year career with PennDOT under his belt, Cooper already had the connections with equipment suppliers and hydraulic experts that it took to get the physical issues resolved. However, it wasn’t all about equipment. “I couldn’t have done it without the cooperation of the workforce down here,” he said, “especially their willingness to try things differently than they’ve historically done.”

Other changes are also being put into place. Traditionally, the city’s streets department would use brine as part of the salt-spreading process only when the temperature dropped below 20 degrees. “Now we’re doing it on every load,” Cooper said. “You get a more effective treatment with less salt.”

As of last week, street crews will also be pre-emptively treating the streets when snow is on the way.

“Brine (a mixture of salt and liquids) is a pre-treating that prevents the bond being formed between the roadway and the ice,” Cooper explained. “One advantage of brine is that you can put it down a day or two before the storm — as long as it doesn’t rain. That means the ice doesn’t adhere to the roadway when the weather changes. Once the roadway is ice-covered, then you’re applying the salt to break the bond, instead of preventing the bond from forming in the first place.”

If all this talk of hydraulics and preemptive treatments sounds high-tech, it is. “Winter is much more scientific than most people realize,” Cooper said.

Cooper’s bottom line is clear. While the quantity of salt used goes down, the quality of service is definitely not going to decline. “We’re plowing quicker than we used to,” he said. “We’re attempting to up the level of service with a reduction in cost.”

As for the savings — it could probably be at least $60,000 to $80,000 for the current winter — only time will tell.

In nearby Vernon, where the township Road Department uses brine instead of salt or other materials, specific financial figures aren’t currently available, but “I can tell you the savings have been significant in a lot of other regards,” township Manager Dave Stone said recently.

Officials there are counting the township’s savings in the forms of less wear-and-tear on snow-removal equipment, less overtime for road department employees and lower-than-usual expenses for gasoline among other areas. “Those are all things we’re saving tremendous amounts of money on” so far this year, said Stone, adding it will be more clear just how much was saved once the winter season actually ends.

“The other side” of that coin, Stone said, “is we’re getting projects done,” like other departments, that would normally be held off until later.

In those regards, “it’s been a good winter,” he said.

“No question” there, said John Shartle, roadmaster in nearby West Mead Township — “the winter’s been in our favor.”

He said West Mead’s road crew has been doing much of the same types of projects as other departments in recent days and weeks, and “we’re hoping the winter’s going to stay the way it’s been” of late.

He also said it will be spring, likely around early April, before officials there can precisely point how much related savings the township may have resulted from the season that’s been milder than usual — so far.

Remember, Shartle said: “The winter’s not over yet.”