What happens when the snow starts falling

Snow information contacts

Spokane County

Hotline: (509) 477-2666

24-hour map: http://www.spokanecounty.org/863/Snowplowing-Sanding

Department of Transportation

Website: http://www.wsdot.com/winter/WinterOps

City of Cheney

Website: http://www.cityofcheney.org

By AL STOVER

Staff Reporter

With a wet winter on the horizon, crews from Airway Heights and Medical Lake are prepared for when the snow falls.

Medical Lake has a different fleet of plow trucks this year — a used road grader, which the city purchased in March, along with two used dump trucks that replaced the vehicles lost in an April fire.

Scott Duncan, Medical Lake’s maintenance supervisor, said the road grader will be able to handle a little bit more snow and “move a little bit faster” than the previous machine and both dump trucks have a pre-wet salt system. Duncan explained that pre-wet salt will keep the sand it distributes on the slippery roads instead of it being blown away.

“It’s (the fleet) better than where we were last year,” Duncan said.

Duncan said the city will plow arterials when there is 2 inches of snow on the ground, a job that takes about four hours. Crews will plow the entire city when snow reaches 4 inches, which Duncan said takes about 10 hours.

The plows do not have gates, which City Administrator Doug Ross said can result in snow berms when the trucks plow the street. The road grader will come along and clean up the berms. The city recommends residents place flags at the edges of their driveway so grader operators can see where to drop the gate. The flags also help drivers’ visibility.

In downtown, crews will push the snow into the middle of the street while the front end loader will clear it. Crews will also use de-icer in “trouble spots.”

Ross noted a couple of factors that equipment issues and time of day can affect how long it takes crews to plow the city.

“It’s harder to plow with more cars on the road,” Ross said. “It’s much easier to plow at 2 a.m. Sometimes equipment can break down, but we feel pretty good with the equipment we have.”

Ross added the city does not plow private properties. However, there are some property owners that allow drivers to dump snow on their land. He added that the Washington State Department of Transportation plows State Route 902.

The city asks residents to keep their cars off the streets when it snows, so it is easier for the plows to get through. Ross said the city cannot tow cars in the street, but it can ticket vehicle owners.

As for Airway Heights, Public Works Director Kevin Anderson said his department has three snow plows, one grader and one 96-inch Snow Master.

“When it comes mid-November, we put the plows on the trucks and shift into ‘winter mode,” Anderson said.

Jeff Richards, street lead for the department, said he uses the National Weather Service office in Airway Heights to track the weather. Staff will run their plows if there is a “good 2-3 inches of snow on the ground,” according to Anderson. Drivers will go out at around 3 a.m. and start with the area around Sunset Elementary School and intersections in the city, then continue through the rest of Airway Heights.

Anderson said most streets in Airway Heights are 40 feet wide, which allows for more than one plow to go through at a time.

Richards added that the department has five new drivers, so trucks may take “a little longer” to get through the streets at times.

“But by 7 a.m., everyone should have a path to get out of their house and driveway,” Richards added.

Like Medical Lake, Airway Heights residents have to keep their vehicles off the road during a snow event.

“We have it in our code that we can tow cars, but (mostly) we’ll have the police give them a warning,” Anderson said. “We’re trying to be as cooperative as we can with residents.”

Residents should also remove objects such as basketball hoops and garbage cans from the roadways so plows can get through, nor should children play in the snow berms on the street.

Anderson said the Washington State Department of Transportation plows U.S. Highway 2 while the city of Spokane takes care of Sunset Hill and east of Deer Heights Road and Spokane County takes care of west of Hayford Road.

As for private property, it is the residents’ responsibility to make sure the full width of their sidewalk is clear of snow. They are also responsible for clearing their driveways.

“Residents can also contact snow removal companies if they can’t remove snow themselves,” Anderson added.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].

Cheney police can have cars towed if plows are blocked; state prioritizes its highway duties by four levels of service

By JOHN McCALLUM

Editor

Despite recent misses by area weather prognosticators, snow will eventually fall in Eastern Washington in quantities sending local snow plows rolling. When that does, there are a few things local residents should know.

In Cheney, city plows roll whenever 2 or more inches of snow accumulates, and continue as long as that snow remains uncleared. Under such conditions, according to the city’s municipal code, drivers parking their vehicles on the street or right of ways must remove them between midnight and 6 a.m., except in the central business district where they must be out of the way between 3 – 6 a.m.

The code defines the central business district “as the area bordered by and inclusive” of First and Second streets from G Street to D Street, and G and D streets between First Street and Second Street. Owners of vehicles not moved, and potentially blocking plows, may be issued a $50 citation by Cheney police, have their cars towed and be required to pay those towing expenses.

Cheney Police Department Capt. Rick Campbell said in the past, the department sent officers to put flyers on cars informing them of the city’s policy, but discontinued the practice.

“That got to be labor and resource intensive,” Campbell said. “And, we were still ticketing and towing cars.”

Campbell added that Cheney’s building codes require off-street parking in residential areas. Additionally, parking in city, EWU and business lots is prohibited

When snow accumulates, the city’s plows focus on arterials: State Route 904, Betz and Salnave roads along with Washington, Elm and North Sixth streets. After the arterials are cleared, Public Works Director Todd Ableman said Cheney’s two truck plows are done, and the work of clearing the rest of the city is split between the Street Department’s four remaining pieces of equipment, two of which — the road grader and a front loader — have snow-gating capabilities.

“The time of the day depends on where we start the ‘split’ plow operation,” Ableman said in an email. “We try not to go into areas where vehicles are parked during the day (EWU), and shift to these areas during the evening/early morning.”

Ableman said the city uses chemical de-icer on streets both prior to a snowfall and after. The post-event application is not ideal, however, as it tends to use more chemical to melt the snow from “the top down.”

“Typically we tend to pre-treat prior to storm events, and after we remove snow off the streets,” Ableman said.

According to its website, during snow events Spokane County road crews work 12-hour shifts around the clock to clear 2,527 miles of roadways. Crews clear major arterials first, followed by secondary arterials and hillside residential streets and finally all other rural access roads.

Snow is plowed to the roadway edges to allow access to mailboxes and water drainage, with trucks following the plows to spread traction sand or de-icer. The county does not operate “boots” or “gates” that let plows skip driveway entrances.

This leaves a continuous berm that residents must clear themselves. However, according to the county’s codes, it is a misdemeanor to place snow from private property onto a county road right-of-way.

Washington state Department of Transportation staffs their snow plow crews “like fire stations,” Eastern region public information officer Al Gilson said in an email. Crews are ready seven days a week, working two, eight-hour shifts per day, and will pre-treat highways before forecasted storms or frost conditions.

“If we have high confidence on a forecasted storm or continuing on a working storm, we extend the shifts to 24 hours,” he added.

Gilson said highway sections are prioritized for clearance by levels of service, with freeways such as Interstate 90 having Level 1 priority. Level 1 roadways utilize a combination of chemical and mechanical means to clear snow during and after the event.

Level 2 highways carry the same procedures for pre-event and during-event snow removal as Level 1; the difference being that after the event, roadways are returned to bare and wet conditions using mainly plowing “as soon as practical.” Level 2 roadways on the West Plains include Highway 2 from Spokane to Davenport, State Route 902 from I-90 to Medical Lake and SR-904 from I-90 to Cheney.

SR-902 from Medical Lake back to I-90 and SR-904 from Cheney to Tyler/I-90 are classified as Level 4 roads. During the event, de-icer is applied only on the first pass, with plowing being the primary means of snow removal after that.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].