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Plowing out the Interstate / It took awhile, but I-15 is finally clear
By Sam CooperOGDEN -- A phalanx of snowplows Tuesday on Interstate 15 pushed aside the last remnants of a Christmas snowstorm that paralyzed much of the Top of Utah.
Utah Department of Transportation crews mopped up lingering snow piles and drifts from the interstate's median between 5600 South in Roy to near the Weber/Box Elder county line.
Opening up the median gives motorists a place to stop in emergencies and also reduces the chance melting snow will puddle and then refreeze on the roadway, said UDOT spokesman Vic Saunders.
But with the worst storm this season fading into memory, many Top of Utah residents are complaining about how snow removal has been handled in their areas.
"I saw a plow come up my street once, and the shovel wasn't even down. He just put down a little bit of dirt and left," said Christopher Oliverson, of Roy.
"I don't expect them to be out here with hair dryers making sure they're dry, but after 24 hours and the roads are still covered with ice? That's what irks me a little."
The tone was similar elsewhere in the Top of Utah.
"As a resident of a busy street in Ogden, I have often wondered this winter where the snowplows have gone," Bethany Larson wrote in a recent letter to the editor.
"It seems that, after every storm, Ogden city is very slow to get the snow removed from the roads, including roads one would consider to be a top priority, such as Harrison Boulevard."
But all snowstorms are not created equal -- and neither is the snow they leave behind, officials said.
"Utah has the greatest snow on Earth, but sometimes it comes in different forms," said George Benford, Ogden's public services director.
If temperatures are already low when flakes start falling, the snow stays fluffy and light, he said. But in last week's storm, heavy wet snow, and even rain in some places, was followed by falling temperatures.
"There's no amount of salt and sand that you can put on ice outside when it's that cold. Daytime highs didn't even get above the freezing point," Benford said.
Saunders echoed Benford's observations. Once the wet snow is frozen on the roadway, no amount of salt will break it loose when it's too cold, he said.
Passing motorists worsen the problem by packing down the snow, he said.
UDOT had every available truck and driver on the road over the weekend, Saunders said.
"Even with that, there were still parts that were snowpacked on Monday. The combo of the deep snow, the packing and the moisture created almost a cement-like effect."
Once the snow sets up that firmly, shovels can do little but scrape at the hardened surface, removing a thin layer at a time.
"Our plows don't scrape the roads clean," Benford said.
The flexible blades are designed to move loose snow, he said, not remove ice.
"One of our plows was actually scraping the road and hit a manhole cover. It flipped off the road and took out the truck's transmission."
Benford likened the difficulties the plows experienced to the process of shoveling your driveway.
"If you drive in your driveway a couple of times before you shovel, there are a couple of tracks that stay there until it melts," he said.
By Friday, every through street in Ogden, about 300 miles of road, had been plowed, Benford said.
Nevertheless, some north/south roads that see little sun are still snowpacked in spots and likely to stay that way until temperatures warm up.
Even with two budget cuts this year, there has been no reduction in snow-removal efforts in Ogden, Benford said.
"We made some adjustments to maintain the same level of snowplowing as in the past," he said.
The city has even ordered new, smaller trucks to complement the fleet. Though they won't be able to carry the same amount of salt, the smaller trucks are more mobile and efficient, Benford said.
One minor change to plowing this year has been to change the city's salt strategy, he said.
Instead of salting an entire street, spreaders target the middle of the road and allow the melting snow to spread it outward.
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The plowing has indeed been deplorable. I don't care what excuses UDOT or the cities have. Roy City had pretty clean streets on the 27th, but Ogden, Harrisville, North Ogden, and Pleasant View were awful. Don't try to tell me there's nothing more that could be done.
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