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| Curb ramps still snowed in at Wisconsin Avenue crosswalk at Chase Avenue last night |
Roads in downtown Bethesda were generally in good shape by yesterday afternoon, but snow plowing operations in residential neighborhoods have been complicated by the ice that made up a substantial part of the precipitation that fell between 6:00 AM and 8:00 PM on Sunday. I noticed that Montgomery County plows were having a harder time than usual getting down to bare pavement on neighborhood streets, making four passes instead of the typical two, and there being a lot more noise as a lot of the snow and ice were simply getting crushed flatter by the heavy truck. I have also seen smaller pickup truck-size vehicles with plows now being deployed.
One other factor may have played a role where road conditions remained poor. Driving around parts of Bethesda prior to the storm's arrival, I found that much less of the solution used to pre-treat the pavement had been applied to the County streets I traveled, compared to previous years. I don't know if this was a cost-saving decision, a malfunctioning sprayer truck, or a kneebend to environmental organizations. But a couple of stripes in each travel lane certainly meant that the melting function was diminished.
Also, as of last evening, the crosswalk curb ramps on either side of Wisconsin Avenue at Chase Avenue had not yet been shoveled. Property owners are responsible for clearing these ramps, as well as the sidewalks. See the photo at the top of this article. But in general, it's really quite impressive that the County was able to get the downtown streets into the condition you see here, as this snow was very, very nasty to shovel and plow after the ice storm started just before sunrise on Sunday. Despite the recent and frustrating trend of plowing only a single lane on residential side streets (property taxes have not been correspondingly reduced by 66%), we should cut the snowplow drivers a break in this case, because they were really struggling in spots to clear this away.
16 comments:
The snow service that I hired was very late for the same reason. They could not move until the residential streets were plowed and then it was slow going for them even with a snow blower and two guys with shovels.
And yet somehow, NYC, Chicago, Boston and other major areas, hit with snow and ice exp winter, get things cleared so effectively and efficiently that by morning, every road, crossing and side street is clear. Prove me wrong. Never seen this here ever especially not with snow totals that weren't anywhere near what was forecasted. Easy to Monday morning quarterback? Sure. But there's sometime else going on here and it stinks of budget cuts. Anti ICE bills being proudly penned yet weatherman Chuck Bell's prediction that not a single hour of class time this week will be held is all but assured to come true. This isn't Raleigh. How embarrassing.
Thanks Robert.
Our neighborhood was plowed in good time, away from downtown.
We were driving around yesterday. Did you?
Kinda' difficult to "drive around" when you can't even get your car out of the parking space in the lot of a building on Battery Lane "owned" by HOC and managed by slumlord ResOne©. Glad you enjoyed your outing, btw try being a pedestrian sometime and and schlep from one end of town to the other walking through nasty slush and mountains of snow carelessly plowed high blocking crosswalks & sidewalks.
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JAC @ 9:34 AM -
You really should have gone to news sites for any of those cities before you shot from the hip. All of those cities are struggling with the effects of the storm.
5:14 - Shot from the hip? Not sure what you're talking about. The major cities mentioned handle the snow like it's nothing. Everyone knows that so I don't know what you mean about websites, etc.
The main road that runs through the Kenwood neighborhood was not touched as of Monday night at 10pm. I got stuck because the first 30 feet from the main road was clear then nothing after that.
A lot of the sidewalks throughout downtown Bethesda, including stretches along Wisconsin and in front of many businesses, still weren't shoveled or cleared as of Wednesday afternoon.
This was not anywhere near a typical snowstorm for this area; the amount of sleet that froze overnight into "sleetcrete" has been incredibly difficult to remove. Add the extremely low temperatures every day and night and nothing is melting - or even evaporating - as it usually does. There is no place to park on the street since all the parking spots are full of this nasty ice. It's impossible to walk because the sidewalks, unless the caretaker has access to some very powerful machinery, are the same. I have never seen it like this here.
Stop your whining and stand in line with the rest of the East coast.
Why didn't Giant on Arlington Rd clear their sidewalk? Today is Thursday and it still isn't cleared. Also, the abandoned buildings' sidewalks are not shoveled. Shouldn't the owners of those buildings still be responsible for snow removal. Check the Woodmont Grill building and 8008 Wisconsin Avenue.
Absolutely the owners need to be fined for not shoveling,
I was very disappointed to find CVS has completely let their sidewalks go impassable so that you have to walk in the street, while Tastee Diner was able to shovel theirs.
Guess all that prescription medicine is less profitable than eggs.
I got out of Bannockburn Tuesday and ran errands. Went down River Road from Westbard to Little Falls. One lane each was blocked by snow, I suspect the plows didn’t want to block the new (and hardly used) bike lanes. This is a disaster - River is a main commuter road. Get rid of those bike lanes. They serve no purpose other than to make driving there more hazardous, even in good weather. Don’t think the CC realizes that MoCo is a suburban county.
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