Monday, November 29, 2010

Spokane City and County Snow Update

From Spokane County:

Spokane County Road Crews have finished plowing and sanding emergency routes, primary arterials, most secondary roads, and have now started working to clear hills and residential areas.

Crews are working 12-hour shifts around the clock to cover all 2,500 miles of road in the County. The goal is to finish all of the residential areas before the next storm arrives tonight. For more information on snow removal on County roads, click here.

From the City of Spokane:

The City of Spokane continues to work under a Stage 2 Snow Emergency, which means City crews will work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until they complete a full City plow that includes all residential areas. Crews anticipate finishing work in the residential areas by early Tuesday, just in time for the next round of snow.

The City will plow Browne’s Addition on Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. North-south streets are planned for Tuesday and east-west streets on Wednesday. Because streets in Browne’s Addition are very narrow, all cars must be moved to accommodate the plows. Cars that aren’t moved will be towed.

Click here to check the progress of City plows. Residents can type in their address on the top of the snow plowing progress map to get a closer look at their area.

6 comments:

Charles said...

I was plowed this morning and am in section 9. Got a nice picture of the only cars not moved to the even side of the road, my inconsiderate neighbor. He still has a wrecked car he was supposed to move before the first snow hit.
The city did finally pick up the leaves by me, plowed them all on the side of the road by me (no sidewalk there) and into the alley.

SRTC Staff said...

So are the cars under several feet of snow? That's what happens when you don't move them. It's hard to feel sorry for people like that when that happens, but I'm sure it happens all the time where folks claim they didn't know they were supposed to move their cars.

And I guess that's ONE way to get rid of leaves, although I've never heard of crews pushing them into an alley! Crazy, may have to do some checking on that one.

Charles said...

They did not push the leaves into the alley, the leaves just covered the berm they pushed into the alley opening.
I was lucky on my side of the neighbor just a little berm which I shoveled, but on the other side the berm crosses nearly the whole lot of the neighbor including the neighbors driveway. They just gunned their vehicles and left not cleaning up anything.

SRTC Staff said...

Oh, I see what you're saying about the leaves. By the way, sounds like I have the same neighbors as you. This guy even went to the trouble of throwing his snow tires in the back of his pickup truck- to use as weight, not to actually have them put on the truck.

John S. said...

Yeah the city saying they have completed all residential roads is utter BS! Also I have yet to see a plow with their blade down city or county. Every single plow I have seen driving by has had their blade up just driving by, not even having their de-icer nozzle open. It has been 2 weeks sense the first snow storm and I have yet to see a plow enter my neighborhood either. I live in between the "Y" of hwy 2 and 395 which is considered county and is I believe very conveniently forgotten by everyone! Now instead of 2 feet of snow to go through we have 2 feet of slush to get stuck in. So I ask where are the plows?!

SRTC Staff said...

Actually John, neither the City or the County has claimed to have plowed all residential streets. Both have said they started to plow them when more storms hit and they had to go back to hills, arterials, bus routes, etc.

I also live in the County and, except for this morning, have had fabulous plow service. The main road I live off of is a major school bus route though, so that may explain why plowing has been done so regularly there. The roads weren't plowed this morning when I left for work and it was like driving through four inches of mashed potatoes.

Here's a news release I literally JUST got from the county:
'Crews have had to repeatedly return to plowing/sanding emergency routes, primary arterials and secondary roads (in that order). And while some neighborhood areas have been plowed at least once, others are still waiting. Current conditions are further complicated by warmer temperatures that have melted the floor of compact snow and ice. As motorists break through, vehicles become stuck in the churned up slush and/or rutted surfaces.

Currently, County crews are using approximately 80 pieces of equipment and will move into residential areas later today. This morning, the County authorized hiring private contractors to assist in clearing residential areas.'


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.