Turnpike Mechanics Keep Fleet Going Through Harsh Winters
Mechanics Dave Birtel (left) and Mike Cresho work to repair a plow truck on the Northeast Extension.
The pin that holds a plow blade to a dump truck broke, and the driver had to pull over on the side of the road against the sheer, rocky face of a mountain one recent, chilly day in the upper reaches of the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Northeast Extension. But the driver knew he didn’t have to call AAA. He was in good hands by picking up the radio and asking for help from the pros -- Mike Cresho and Dave Birtel.
Cresho was already knees and elbows deep in the engine of another orange Mack Truck while Birtel was beneath yet another, raised high up on a mechanical lift. When the call came through, they grabbed their gear and leapt into action.
Cresho and Birtel are the mechanics at the Wyoming Valley Maintenance Facility, and like mechanics at each of the 23 sheds throughout the 565-mile expanse of the PA Turnpike, they help keep the fleet running through even the harshest of winters.
“I enjoy everything about it,” Cresho said. “I don’t mind if I get dirty. I’ve done clutches, transmissions, I took engines apart – it’s a challenge.”
And he loves the challenge. He has always been a mechanic, ever since he was a kid tooling around in his father’s garage. He enjoys diagnosing a problem, whether it’s with a laptop hooked to a modern truck to find where he has to turn a wrench or putting his trained eyes and ears to the test, listening to the rivet-shaking roar of a diesel engine or watching for those small issues that can become big ones.
It's all about keeping the trucks on the road, and for Birtel, it’s those daily challenges that make the job interesting. Every day is something new, and Birtel does it all with one hand.
“I was born like this,” he said, but with just a right hand, he’s been working on cars and trucks his whole life and hardly misses a beat. “I just got used to it, and I don’t even realize it’s not there.”It’s been a pretty rough winter with several snow and ice storms, but for the Turnpike’s mechanics, winter actually starts in the summer. That’s when they do repairs, inspections, change hydraulic lines, brakes and filters, hoses and tires and more on all of their shed’s vehicles.
“Summer preparation means a lot in the wintertime,” Cresho said.
That’s the secret ingredient in the special sauce so that during those winter months, when equipment operators are hopping behind the wheel and rolling out to salt and plow, Cresho and Birtel are switching over to triage mode to fix what breaks and get the trucks back out on the road as soon as possible.
“We try to stay ahead of everything, but some things are uncontrollable” Birtel said, adding that’s when the excitement begins.
Like when the pin holding a plow onto a truck breaks. When that happened recently, Cresho and Birtel loaded up their utility van and grabbed a couple wooden blocks (yes, wood!) and drove up to find their colleague awaiting them on the side of the road near Clarks Summit.
With traffic whizzing by, they used chains and those wooden blocks to level the plow blade’s attachment point with the truck and hold it in place. Wielding a sledgehammer, they pounded in a temporary pin – enough to get the truck back to the shed for proper repairs.
“We replaced it and got him up and going in a few minutes,” Birtel said.
Wood and hammers may be a far cry from the high-tech Mack Trucks, but it’s all part of the daily adjustments – the winter triage -- mechanics make to keep the fleet running.
Wyoming Valley Maintenance Foreman Michael Carter said the work of the mechanics is crucial to the Turnpike, and his mechanics are the right people to for the job.
“They’re really good at what they do, and they’re good guys,” Carter said. “If we don’t have trucks, we can’t keep the road open.”