Kirstin Davis, Communications Manager, 509.625.7773
Tuesday, December 20, 2022 at 3:46 p.m.
The City of Spokane will once again move into a full-City plow, following several inches of snow that fell throughout the day. Crews will continue to work in the arterials this evening and overnight and then will move into the residential areas in the overnight hours. More teams will join the plowing effort on Wednesday morning, and the City expects that plow to take three days once residential work begins.
The Streets Department anticipated a snow day and scheduled additional crews at 4 a.m. this morning anticipating the snow fall and called in additional crews for dayshift to plow, sand and deice primary and secondary arterial routes along with hills.
“Our snow response team remains flexible as the weather changes in order to maintain City streets,” says Street Director Clint Harris. “We appreciate the community’s patience as we continue to respond to frequent snowfall events.”
The community is reminded that snow response priority always starts with arterials and hills with secondary routes including schools and hospitals following and then working in to residential areas. The order for plowing residential routes are posted on the City’s web site; this page also includes the City’s plow map, which will be updated with the progress of the plows. The City’s residential plow route map shows the routes. Routes are scheduled based on snow levels and are rotated when possible to have different neighborhoods begin being plowed.
Full-City plow operations means crews will work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until they plow all streets within the City. Additional personnel from water and wastewater will be part of full-City plowing efforts. Under the City’s snow response plan, a Full-City plow reaching all 2,200 lane miles of streets should take about three days to complete once it stops snowing and is dependent on weather conditions.
Plow teams in residential areas will use snow gates to reduce berms at the end of driveways as much as possible. The City has 19 pieces of equipment outfitted with those gates. Crews will work to plow snow away from the curb to help keep snow away from sidewalks. Snow also may be pushed to center medians in some cases.
When driving in these wintry conditions, the City is asking motorists to slow down, be patient, and drive according to the conditions. Don't follow plows closely, and please do not try to pass plow trucks; it is very dangerous.
A reminder of how the community can help:
