ST PAUL, Minnesota — It's been three weeks since the city of St. Paul's last snow emergency — their fifth one so far this 2022-2023 season.
"That's a lot of snow and a record-season snowfall already," said Lisa Hiebert, public information officer and marketing manager for St. Paul Public Works.
Since the last snow emergency, crews have been focused on addressing trouble spots in about 100 residential street segments.
Hiebert said they have been communicating with the city's fire and police departments, along with St. Paul Public Schools, to identify narrow streets that have made it challenging for emergency vehicles and school buses to navigate.
With the warmer weather, crews have made progress addressing residential streets with compacted snow and ice. The city added a fourth grader for snow removal over the weekend; Monday was its first day out on the roads.
"We're trying to take advantage of the warmer weather to see if we can get some of that slush up. Unfortunately, what we're finding right now is we're doing what's called center cuts where we're trying to go down the middle drive lane on residential streets and try to get some of that up. But some of that snowpack is really tight and it's not coming up as easily as it might other times," Hiebert said.
But even so, Hiebert said they expect to get through their initial targeted 100 street segments by the end of Wednesday. They will then move on to a new list of trouble spots. Crews have also been putting salt down on residential streets in hopes of loosening some of the compacted snow and ice. Updates to the city's street maintenance can be found, here.
Street maintenance crews are also pothole patching with two crews out every day. The freeze-thaw cycle has been rough on roads and Hiebert said they are seeing more potholes because of it.
"Right now we're using what's called cold mix. So, unfortunately, it doesn't have the adhesive like hot mix does during the summer, so it's not permanent. Unfortunately sometimes we can fill that pothole and somebody will hit it... and we're back there filling it the next day or two. So that's just the reality of living in this cold temperature environment that we have," Hiebert said.
Hiebert also recommends residents make sure their storm drains are cleared to avoid pooling on the streets.
"Even if they can chop just a little small trickle of a river to let that water go through, they shouldn't see any pooling on their streets. If they do, they can certainly give us a call and we'll try to open up those storm drains with our sewer division," Hiebert said.
Residents should also pay close attention to their sidewalks and treat, if necessary.
In the city of Minneapolis, crews also continue to treat and scrape areas that are rutted due to compacted snow and ice. Minneapolis Spokesperson Casper Hill said, "The mild weather does help in this effort, but is also contributing to the development of potholes. We are filling the worst potholes with temporary cold mix and will be addressing potholes as quickly as possible in the spring when the asphalt plants open."
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