Blizzard 2015 Boston

Garandman · Jan 31, 2015

VTFireftr said:
I work in downtown Boston, and it is still a mess. Is anyone from this forum available to teach the Boston contract plow drivers, and city workers how to actually plow? Talk about morons in trucks.

We defer to the vast experience you have in plowing a metro region with more population than the entire state of Vermont, and a road network laid out by 17th century cows.....

But since you are such an expert in urban snow clearing, maybe you can help me out. At our old place in South Boston I had to clear two parking spaces and half the road width of this 25" of snow. I also had to clear the sidewalk 42" wide in front of my house. So that's 1,800 cubic feet of snow I have to clear, and I have 50 square feet of sidewalk space to put it. What would you suggest?

Boston designates emergency snow arteries, bans parking on them, and keeps those open come **** or high water. Then they use a combination of city trucks and private contractors to clear residential areas, bus routes, schools, etc. The cost for snow removal after a blizzard like 1/27 is approximately $15 million. If you have some suggestions I'm sure they'd be willing to hire a consultant for a fraction of the savings.

tractchores · Feb 1, 2015

Garandman said:
We defer to the vast experience you have in plowing a metro region with more population than the entire state of Vermont, and a road network laid out by 17th century cows.....

But since you are such an expert in urban snow clearing, maybe you can help me out. At our old place in South Boston I had to clear two parking spaces and half the road width of this 25" of snow. I also had to clear the sidewalk 42" wide in front of my house. So that's 1,800 cubic feet of snow I have to clear, and I have 50 square feet of sidewalk space to put it. What would you suggest?

Boston designates emergency snow arteries, bans parking on them, and keeps those open come **** or high water. Then they use a combination of city trucks and private contractors to clear residential areas, bus routes, schools, etc. The cost for snow removal after a blizzard like 1/27 is approximately $15 million. If you have some suggestions I'm sure they'd be willing to hire a consultant for a fraction of the savings.

I think its time to break out the flame thrower, or give up and move. There's a LOT of very tall narrow snowbanks, no idea what we're going to do monday. I'm just glad my town doesn't make us do the sidewalks yet.

swnoel · Feb 1, 2015

Garandman said:
We defer to the vast experience you have in plowing a metro region with more population than the entire state of Vermont, and a road network laid out by 17th century cows.....

But since you are such an expert in urban snow clearing, maybe you can help me out. At our old place in South Boston I had to clear two parking spaces and half the road width of this 25" of snow. I also had to clear the sidewalk 42" wide in front of my house. So that's 1,800 cubic feet of snow I have to clear, and I have 50 square feet of sidewalk space to put it. What would you suggest?

Boston designates emergency snow arteries, bans parking on them, and keeps those open come **** or high water. Then they use a combination of city trucks and private contractors to clear residential areas, bus routes, schools, etc. The cost for snow removal after a blizzard like 1/27 is approximately $15 million. If you have some suggestions I'm sure they'd be willing to hire a consultant for a fraction of the savings.

Blame George Bush and demand action against his policies of the past! ;-)

Garandman · Feb 2, 2015

They are using ice melters more and more. They cost $300,000 to $500,000 each and use a lot of fuel, but trucking snow isn't cheap either.

A guy from NH in the Boston thread said Boston doesn't dump snow in the harbor because they're silly Liberals (it's a Federal restriction) but they can apply for an emergency exemption. USCG Boston has already done so to clear their dock space.

Still calling for 8-14" more in Boston today, and it is heavier and wind blown.

BIKER BOB · Feb 2, 2015

Looks like about another foot of snow for today! Good thing I pushed the snow banks back this weekend. "Love this stuff" If it snows much more in southern Maine we will be buried! So much for "global warming". Spring is only about six weeks away!

VTFireftr · Feb 2, 2015

Garandman,

I know your pain. I have to shovel out a parking spot at work.

As for the plowing, on some of the main roads, the contractors refuse to plow curb to curb. The parking ban keeps the cars of the roads, so a couple extra passes is no issue. It just seems strange that the city has to wait 2 days to come back and clear the roads. Had they done that the first time thru, the traffic issues wouldn't happen, because people wouldn't be parking in the plowed lanes.

As for dumping the snow in the harbor, makes no sense. It's OK to melt it, and it flows in thru the storm drains - not connected to Deer Island plant, but not in "solid form".

Got to love the EPA and their knowledge.

Garandman · Feb 2, 2015

Plowed snow turns out to be pretty nasty stuff, and some of the snow dumps drain directly to the harbor. But even the people at Save the Harbor Save the Bay (one of the groups that lobbied for the ban and threatened to sue cities like for dumping) suggest that limited dumping would not be an environmental concern.

No Jinx! Boston Quietly Plowed Patriots Parade Route Before Super Bowl

BOSTON (CBS) — Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told WBZ-TV Monday morning that, without attracting any attention, crews were out over the weekend carefully plowing some of the areas where the boats might travel.

“We were clearing Saturday and Sunday, the parade route,” Walsh said. “No one knew about it and it worked.”

Snowing hard again though forecast is only 8-14".

Garandman · Feb 2, 2015

Here's what you face in Boston neighborhoods. This is a couple winter ago when we still lived in South Boston. This is after a storm, with the sidewalks cleared but most of the cars still snowed in.

You can imagine what the snowbanks looked like after people started shoveling out their cars. Lest anyone feel sorry for me, we moved in 2013 and have a garage and driveway now. So instead of this:

It's this.

Garandman · Feb 2, 2015

This one is going to be ugly. 30 degrees so heavy. Wind is 28 gusting 37 from the northeast. Our street is roughly NE so to clear the sidewalk I'd have to blow it against the wind. A "helpful" neighbor just came by with a snow thrower and blew the sidewalk snow into the roadside berm so I'll have even more to blow back. So I'll wait for the wind to die down.