City Wants to Improve Snow Removal
Well, that’s great! The Times Dispatch posted an article this AM breaking down the snow removal problem and some steps by the city to help alleviate it. I have listed the short and long term steps:
•Mobilize workers when there’s 2 inches of snow on the ground, rather than 3 inches.
•Set a goal of clearing all main, non-neighborhood roads within 48 hours.
•Enlist additional private contractors, including ones hired for non-snow-clearing jobs.
•Immediately buy four highway plows, 12 tailgate spreaders and four reversible plows. Also, revise a pending order for 23 garbage trucks so they can be equipped for snow-clearing.
•Identify additional city employees who may be qualified to operate snow equipment.
•Stop buying sedans for inspectors and resume buying pickup trucks that can be deployed for snow duty.
•Designate snow-emergency routes, which could require cars to be removed from one side of certain roads to provide room for snow equipment. Marshall estimated the cost of the initiatives at about $200,000 and said money is available in this year’s budget from projects that finished with a surplus.
Do you think this will actually happen?
When the state agencies are closed, they should have the on-street parkers park in the state lots and decks, including VCU, temporarily. That way there will be fewer cars on the street and plowing will be easier.
I have a really hard time imagining how these “snow-emergency routes” will work, I already have trouble finding parking after a certain hour of the day and my building has (limited) off street parking.
To answer the question: Do you think this will actually happen?
No.
Let’s see. It’s Monday, and I must get to work. I live in the annexed portion of Richmond on a narrow, hilly road. No plows or sanders have come by. The road is pure ice and I am expected to reach Cherokee Road. This is the third snow storm in which our street has been forgotten. Meanwhile, a friend who lives in Windsor Farms has seen the plow go by three times by Sunday. And they think they can get their act together and create emergency snow routes? C’mon!