When Winter Storm Blair dumped nearly a foot of snow on parts of Greater Cincinnati, municipal workers dusted off their snow plow trucks and hit the roads.
Although local crews are typically quick to mobilize to dedicated routes during inclement winter weather, persistent cold and snowy conditions can make treating the roadways difficult.
Despite these challenges, cities and townships across Hamilton County are responsible for plowing their own streets, leaving interstates and county roads for their respective agencies to handle.
Here’s how prepared some of the county’s largest municipalities are for major winter weather events.
Cincinnati’s snow removal crews are responsible for clearing more than 3,000 lane miles throughout the city’s 52 neighborhoods, according to spokeswoman Mollie Lair. She said 20 of the city’s 80 snow removal trucks were out of commission and undergoing repairs after the storm.
“They were running 24/7 and a storm of that magnitude puts a lot of wear and tear on the machines,” Lair said in an email.
Although the city was able to clear its main thoroughfares, some residents complained of unplowed side streets days after the storm passed through. Cincinnati City Council members drafted a motion Tuesday asking for a report with “identified areas for improvement” from the city’s snow removal response during Winter Storm Blair.
While the county’s smaller cities and townships don’t have nearly as much ground to cover, they’re collectively responsible for treating and clearing hundreds of lane miles.
In Blue Ash, city spokeswoman Rachel Murray said that each of the city’s eight trucks can cover a distance of 100 to 200 miles per 12-hour shift depending on the route they’re assigned.
Any number of weather-related factors can impede snowplow drivers’ ability to clear the roads, or at least make them passable, including rapid snow accumulations and frigid temperatures, said Ohio Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kathleen Fuller.
“The weather itself is the greatest challenge,” Fuller said. The department is responsible for clearing interstate routes and had over 200 snow removal crews on the road in Southwest Ohio counties during Winter Storm Blair.
The Hamilton County Engineer’s Office is responsible for clearing county roads of snow and ice, including most primary roads in Delhi Township, although the township still maintains 55 miles of roadway during winter weather.
Sycamore Township salts roads and treats them with a liquid mixture of brine, beet juice and calcium ahead of storms, maintenance department superintendent Steve Reutelshofer said. The mixture helps create a weaker bond between the roadway and the ice than just chemicals alone, making clearing the roads easier and more environmentally friendly.
Forest Park also pretreats ahead of storms, especially sidestreets, because snow removal on main roads is prioritized during major weather events, said public works director Scott Falkowski. He said there’s limited road salting as the snow falls because they are plowing the roads and wiping the salt away continuously.
Pretreating roads works best during smaller snow events, as those treatments get washed away by snow and freezing rain in major winter storms, said Fuller with ODOT.
Salt also loses its effectiveness below 20 degrees, she added. Mixing the salt with calcium chloride makes it more effective in colder weather, but it doesn’t matter in single-digit temperatures.
Fuller said the priority during winter storms is to keep the roads passable, as the work to clear the roads of snow only begins once a winter storm subsides.
While constant traffic might break up snow accumulating on the roads, as it takes time for crews to circle back after passing through an area, being on the road in such conditions is a safety risk for drivers, Fuller said.
Snowplows normally travel at low speeds and traffic crashes only slow them down, she said, adding that it can take crews 2 to 3 hours to make a round trip on a route.
On residential streets, it can take even longer. Each route in Colerain Township takes 3 to 4 hours to salt and significantly longer to plow, township spokeswoman Helen Tracey-Noren said.
It once took one of the township’s drivers 12 hours to completely plow his route due to large amounts of snow, people parking on the street and navigating tricky areas like cul-de-sacs, said Tracey-Noren.
Low visibility and other motorists driving too fast also pose hazards to snow removal crews, Fuller said.
“It’s a daunting task, to say the least,” she added. “Every road is different and every storm is different.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Snow removal in Hamilton County: How prepared are cities, townships?