Road conditions rapidly improving as full fleet of trucks attacks winter storm's aftermath
Ann Arbor resident Gene Eavy runs his snowblower to clear out his driveway Wednesday morning following the winter storm overnight.
Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com
Road conditions are rapidly improving this morning as Washtenaw County road crews tackle the winter storm that dumped about 6 inches of snow overnight. With schools and many government offices closed, light traffic volumes have kept accidents to a minimum.
"We're making good progress at this point in time," said Jim Harmon, director of operations for the Washtenaw County Road Commission.
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Motorists will find a variety of conditions, he said, but freeways across the county should be mostly clear. Crews are simultaneously tackling the primary paved roads, and the condition of those vary. Some are mainly clear, but some may still have wheel-track conditions, he said.
In the City of Ann Arbor, Kirk Pennington, field services supervisor, said motorists should encounter few problems on major streets with the exception of some slick sports or possibly drifted areas. Residential streets are passable, he said, but residents may encounter difficulty on hills and some drifted areas. Though residents are not required to move their cars out of the street, doing so will help crews and prevent accidental property damage, he said.
Conditions were not as good in Ypsilanti, said Bradford Holman, superintendent for the Department of Public Works. "If you were a DPW person i would tell you it was round nine and it is a close fight," he said, about 9:20 a.m. A five-person crew is keeping trunk lines and snow routes, such as Michigan and Washtenaw avenues and Hewitt, Hamilton and Huron streets, clear, he said. Major streets will be the next priority, but crews will likely not get to local streets until Thursday, he said.
The main challenge now will be dealing with an additional 1-3 inches of snow that is predicted to fall yet today, Harmon said — along with blowing and drifting conditions that are expected today. Harmon said drifts of 12 to 16 inches could form on some roads because of windy conditions.
Even though the winter storm warning for the area has been downgraded to a winter weather advisory, Harmon still advised residents to stay off the roads if possible.
"If you do have to be on the roads, definitely reduce speeds and leave lots of space between your vehicle and others," he said.
Residents appeared to have mostly headed warning from law enforcement to stay off the roads if possible. Traffic volumes on road and city streets were much lighter than normal early this morning.
Mikal Kilvin, an employee at Ace Barnes Hardware near Washtenaw Avenue and South Huron Parkway in Ann Arbor, said his typical five-minute, 1-mile commute took 15 minutes this morning. Still, the snow wasn’t too bad, he said. The wind blew most of it off, saving him much of the work of clearing it.
“One side was covered, one wasn’t,” he said. “It could have been worse.” Aric Minney has a short commute, too. He works at Bigby Coffee next door to Ace. He traveled from his Ypsilanti apartment complex on Washtenaw Avenue and got to work at 5:30 a.m. with “no problems,” he said.
The Road Commission threw its entire fleet of 46 plow trucks modified with front-mounted plows at the storm starting at 4 a.m. this morning, Harmon said. Those have been joined by five smaller trucks with plows and nine motor graders.
Because the storm was not nearly as bad as predicted Tuesday, Harmon said he expects crews will begin clearing secondary gravel roads and subdivision streets this afternoon. He had earlier predicted plows would not get to those roads until Friday. He asked residents to remove cars from streets so plows can clear them.
In Ann Arbor, Pennington said after clearing major routes, crews would concentrate on clearing areas that normally have Wednesday garbage pickup, mainly in the northeast quadrant of town. Garbage and recycling was canceled for today in Ann Arbor. Residents on Wednesday routes will have pickup Thursday.
Check AnnArbor.com for storm coverage throughout the day. For updated weather information, check our weather page.
AnnArbor.com's Juliana Keeping contributed to this story. Contact Cindy Heflin at cindyheflin@annarbor.com.
Comments
Ann English
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 6:29 p.m.
ordmad, Snowmobiles playing on Liberty Street near State Street reminds me of a guy on YouTube apparently practicing his speed skating on an empty, ice-covered street in Atlanta last month. Of course, the snowmobilers didn't have much playtime, since we're much better prepared for sleet and heavy snow than the South is.
John B.
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 5:37 p.m.
I'm taking a short break from snowblowing/shoveling. We are on the West side of A2, and we have 6-7" of snow on the ground, with more still falling. It is right at the limit of my snowblower's capability in some areas, but I can deal with it. The drifted areas are about 10-14" deep in some places. The wind is still blowing 10-20 mph or so, I would guess. Hey, it's Michigan - we get Winter weather! Skiing to come later today....
UtrespassM
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 4:45 p.m.
The main road was clear, but the enter of the sub-division was blocked till 11am. The morning class at U-M was missed.
WalkingJoe
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 4:42 p.m.
I've been around for 57+ years and have learned that we will know how much snow we will get when the snow stops falling. For 2 days we were told this 12+ inches was a sure thing. The only sure thing was the stores selling milk, bread and toilet paper (why does everybody stock up with toilet paper during and emergency?) made a profit this week.
johnnya2
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 9:26 p.m.
I would suggest you link where you heard from any WEATHER SCIENTIST, it was a "sure thing". In fact most modeling was based on a 70% probability.
Peregrine
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 7:17 p.m.
Who said 12+ inches was a "sure thing"? I doubt the National Weather Service did. Please be specific rather than using the passive ("we were told").
SemperFi
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 4:41 p.m.
NEWSFLASH... weather prognosticators aren't always accurate! C'mon, when are folks going to learn to take this forecasting with a grain of salt? That said, I'd rather err on the side of caution. Making an early call on school closings gives working parents an opportunity to make plans for their kids for their "off day." Also, with the reduction in traffic, it makes it much easier for the snow removal to take place. I thought that the road crews were doing a great job on the major thoroughfares.
Calendar Girl
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 3:44 p.m.
I can't stop laughing! So much for Snowmageddon!! Just another example where the media whips people into a frenzy on a slow news day. Everything is closed for an amount of snow (6 inches) we've gotten several times this winter. There was soooo much vitriol spewed on yesterday's article suggesting those that have lived through snow before should all go out on the roads and end up in a ditch because we refused to believe this was going to be a big deal. Hopefully none of you took Sally up on her suggestions and are all safe at home as I am. However let's remember next time that this is weather and it is not an exact science. There is no need to panic and close schools before storms even start because they may never do so. Now we have another school day that needs to be made up that should never have been called.
John B.
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 5:30 p.m.
"The same comment that Angry Sasquatch made about Sally last night could have been made about you as well." You're kidding, right?
Matt Whale
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 4:43 p.m.
If you look across the midwest we were so lucky Calender Girl. The AAPS sends out trucks early in the morning to see if it's going to be a snow day. Calling it last night made me feel sure that we would be hit. And don't be harsh on Sally either. She was worried as I was. The same comment that Angry Sasquatch made about Sally last night could have been made about you as well.
say it plain
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 3:23 p.m.
My faith in weather science has been shattered, sigh. Maybe we didn't really land men on the moon either.
zip the cat
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 3:14 p.m.
I'd say someone really dropped the ball on this so called storm of the century. With all the high tech weather equiptment at there disposal they missed it by a foot. news 4 was talking 12-16" at 9 pm last night and living in dexter I'D say I only got at the very most 5-6" l
John B.
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 3:51 p.m.
By the time of your post, the A2 forecast was 7-10 inches. We got about 6 inches, and are still getting 1-2 additional inches this morning.
Art Vandelay
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 3:10 p.m.
Kudos to the plow guys! County roads I took this morning were in good shape and city of AA main roads were good, though most side streets didn't look like they'd been touched.
DwightSchrute
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 2:43 p.m.
Mikal Kilvin, an employee at Ace Barnes Hardware near Washtenaw Avenue and South Huron Parkway in Ann Arbor, said his typical five-minute, 1-mile commute. Did anyone think to challenge his claim of walking 1 mile in 5 minutes? If he can do that, get him to the Olympics!!!!
johnnya2
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 9:24 p.m.
Where does it say he walked? Most cars or even mopeds could easily get one mile in 5 minutes. Why would we need to challenge him on this? Oh that's right, another internet know it all.
John B.
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 3:48 p.m.
I suspect he was in a motorized vehicle of some sort....
dading dont delete me bro
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 2:39 p.m.
made the track out about 8:30 (after shoveling/blowing my driveway) and roads are cleared of snow. EXCEPT wide around some intersections and ON/OFF ramps on the expressways.
John B.
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 5:41 p.m.
Hey, that thing got a Hemi? :-)
ordmad
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 2:35 p.m.
9:23 a.m.: snowmobiles playing on untouched Liberty near State.
Ignatz
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 1:50 p.m.
One thing apparent to me as I traveld from Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor was the differences in priorities. I traveled mostly on Washtenaw, but all of the Ypsilanti roads were plowed and not a whole bunch of Ann Arbor ones were. I hoped that at least the hilly areas by traffic lights would not be so heavily covered, but that was not alaways the case.
dotdash
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 1:48 p.m.
AA.com, could you please post the link to the page where the city posts which streets have been plowed? I love that crazy page; even better if it were kept updated.
Epengar
Wed, Feb 2, 2011 : 3:04 p.m.
City of Ann Arbor pages: Main Snow Removal page: <a href="http://www.a2gov.org/government/publicservices/fieldoperations/Pages/SnowRemoval.aspx" rel='nofollow'>http://www.a2gov.org/government/publicservices/fieldoperations/Pages/SnowRemoval.aspx</a> Snow Plow Status page (currently broken, I called Field Operations, they know) <a href="http://www.a2gov.org/government/publicservices/fieldoperations/Pages/StreetSnowPlowingStatus.aspx" rel='nofollow'>http://www.a2gov.org/government/publicservices/fieldoperations/Pages/StreetSnowPlowingStatus.aspx</a> Cable Television Channel 16 is supposed to show snow removal information too. It's not now, maybe it did earlier. Sidewalk Snow Removal page (incl. number to call if sidewalks not cleared within 24 hours) <a href="http://www.a2gov.org/government/safetyservices/Police/Pages/SnowRemovalonSidewalks.aspx" rel='nofollow'>http://www.a2gov.org/government/safetyservices/Police/Pages/SnowRemovalonSidewalks.aspx</a>