Snow removal operations in PG bracing for another blast of winter

Prince George’s second sizeable snow event is upon us and that means crews with the city’s snow removal operations will have a busy few days ahead of them.

The current threshold for priority one and two routes is 7.5 centimetres (over a 24 hour period) while for residential areas the benchmark is nearly twice as much at 12 centimetres.

Roads and Fleet Manager, Jordan Wiseman told MyPGNow.com during the city’s first heavy snowfall, only one area of the city reached the residential threshold.

“The Hart Highway is the only area that met the 12 centimetre priority three threshold for residential. City crews on 8-hour days were in certain residential areas after the Hart Highway was cleaned up picking away at problem areas.”

Wiseman adds crews will be in red, yellow and green residential zones today (Wednesday) and tomorrow (Thursday) before returning back to priority one and two routes.

A snowfall warning remains in place for much of the north including PG where 10 to 15 centimetres is expected to fall.

“As the snow falls, I just want to let people know if we did happen to move into residential area after the 10 to 15 centimetres that has been forecasted – at times, we are required to return to priority one and two’s,” added Wiseman.

In addition, parking restrictions are in place from October 15 to April 15 of each year to help with snow and ice control operations:

• Priority Ones and the Hospital District – On-street parking is prohibited from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
• Downtown – On-street parking is prohibited from 12 a.m. to 7 a.m.
• Residential areas – On-street parking is prohibited from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Parking on the side of the street with odd house numbers is permitted from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. unless otherwise posted.

Illegally parked vehicles are subject to a $50 ticket per offence and/or may be towed.

When at least 7.5 centimetres of snow falls over a span of 24 hours we get what the City calls a “snow event”. If a snow event happens, we mobilize our fleet (plus any contracted equipment) for action once the snow finally stops.

• Priority 1 (red) and Priority 2 (green) routes are cleared within 48 hours after snowfall ends if at least 7.5 centimetres of accumulates over 24 hours.
• Priority 3 (grey) routes are cleared within 72 hours after Priority 1 (red) and Priority 2 (green) routes are finished.