2016/01/25 - Walter's Blog: The First Snow Fall of 2016
So it snowed. It wasn’t a mega-storm or even a blizzard, but we received 2-3 inches that caused slick streets and school closures. The major streets and snow routes were cleared and crews did some work in the neighborhoods. Warmer temperatures also helped over the weekend.
The economics of snow removal involve several different factors: amount of salt used, man-hours to clear the snow (both straight time and overtime), workload on the equipment, and man-hours to repair and maintain the equipment during the snow removal event (something always breaks down). We budget for snow removal but each event is different, depending on the amount of snow, how long it snows, and whether the wind causes drifting and requires multiple clearing of the same stretches of road.
City policy is not to go into subdivisions when the snow accumulation is less than four inches (click here to read the policy). The depth of four inches was chosen because the operation of vehicles in that amount of snow should not pose too much of a problem. Such a snow generally melts shortly after that, and as such it reduces the cost of the City's snow responses. Since it has been cold for several days following the snow, it was decided to modify our policy and clear side streets.
The Public Works Department has a snow removal policy and the priorities are as follows:
- Emergency vehicle access to designated Snow Routes.
- Snow Routes: Major arterial streets and collector streets as adopted by the City Council. Click here to see the Snow Route map.
- Roads serving City, Township, County, State and Federal Facilities.
- Roads serving schools.
- Major intersections.
- Secondary arterial connector streets as recommended by Public Works in consultation with Public Safety and Fire and adopted by City Council.
- Streets with grades of 4% or greater.
- Subdivision through-streets.
We received phone calls about why their street was not plowed, but it is a cost and efficiency issue. With less than four inches of snow, we feel it is possible for people to get to a cleared snow route and continue to their destination. People like to live on cul-de-sacs, but they are not essential to traffic flow and are more difficult and time consuming for snow removal.
Snow removal is essentially dependent on resources. We only have so many snow plows to work the streets when a snow storm hits. One could argue that snow could be removed more quickly if there were more trucks, but dump trucks are expensive and you have to factor in the cost effectiveness of purchasing more dump trucks for snow storms that only come once or twice a year. Cities in colder climates (Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc.) have better snow removal equipment because they deal with much greater volumes of snow annually than we do.
Even if we buy more snow plows, you need a person to drive them. During a major storm, we mobilize all of our Public Works and Parks employees for snow removal. When the storm extends over more than one day, then we have to split our crews into shifts to provide 24-hour coverage. It is unsafe to require an employee to drive a snow plow for excessive periods of time – you run the risk of accidents and damage to the trucks, other cars, and mailboxes.
Lastly, snow removal costs money: fuel, equipment repairs, and overtime. As with everything else, snow removal becomes a budget decision. How much snow plowing is enough? When should plows be called out? How long should they stay out? Some cities (such as St. Louis) only plow the major streets and do not clear the side streets. That would save a lot of time and money if we did that here, but it is not the past practice or the expectation of residents and elected officials.
Salt, fuel, and repairs cost money. Removing snow 24 hours a day requires overtime pay to Public Works employees. In a budget shortfall, money spent on snow removal means that money for other services may have to be cut.
A three-inch snow storm is not severe, but still requires resources. I do not intend to present excuses, but I hope it explains snow removal in terms that may not have been considered before. Our crews work as quickly as they can but there are many factors that affect their ability to remove snow: total inches, duration of snowfall, temperature, wind speed, equipment availability, manpower availability, and overtime costs. The weather forecast calls for warmer temperatures, which is the best snow removal method of them all.