Mayor: Over 5,000 loads of snow hauled; crews clearing 2,000-plus intersections
Day 10 of snow response; schools on two-hour delay again
Crews have hauled more than 5,000 loads of snow out of Alexandria over the past 10 days and are now working through more than 2,000 intersections, Mayor Alyia Gaskins said in a video update Wednesday morning.
Each intersection can take more than an hour to clear—equipment has to chop down the pile, load it into a dump truck, and haul it to a snow site across the city.
“When plows and crews were out, they focused on pushing the snow towards the intersections,” Gaskins said. “Part of that was because they needed to get it out of the way quickly so they could continue to make multiple passes over the same streets which were covered in ice. The other reason was in many neighborhoods, there was nowhere else to put it.”
Crews are starting in the West End—the city’s highest-population area with a number of dangerous intersections—and moving east, focusing on visibility and ADA accessibility.
Adjusting operations
Gaskins said crews are having to change their approach as the city returns to normal. More cars on the road and more pedestrians mean the heavy equipment used earlier in the response can’t be deployed safely in the same way. Crews also can’t line up five or six dump trucks on a major street now that it’s back in regular use.
“It’s great that more people are out walking and moving throughout our city. It means that we’re returning to normal,” Gaskins said. “But it also means that we can’t bring out the same equipment that we were using for safety reasons.”
311 and 911
Both 911 and 311 call volumes have returned to normal. The top 311 report remains sidewalks needing attention.
Gaskins offered a tip: sending reports directly to T&ES rather than tagging the mayor gets issues to snow crews faster.
“When you send it to 311, if you tag me, it means that I then have to send it to the city manager or a deputy city manager, who then has to send it to the team who’s in charge of the snow response,” she said. “If you send it just to T&ES, it goes directly to the person leading snow operations.”
Schools
ACPS is open with a two-hour delay again Wednesday—the third day back from an 11-day stretch without in-person learning. Morning Early Childhood Special Education programs are canceled. Afternoon ECSE and Virginia Preschool Initiative follow their regular schedules.
