Jan

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KC snow plows struggle to get ahead of next wave of snow. How is your neighborhood?

January 4, 2010 | 15 Comments

With more snow and blowing wind on the way for Wednesday, local cities are still struggling to catch up from the Christmas blizzard after a week and a half.  Streets that didn’t get plowed in the first wave now have 2-3 inches of ice bonded to the pavement, and our current super-low temperatures have rendered salt useless in melting the ice.

Olathe and KCMO both report big problems on residential streets.  In KCMO, big areas of Midtown and Waldo are in especially bad shape.  Even some main roads in Midtown are still slippery.  KCMO has stopped plowing residential streets, hoping that leaving snow on top of the ice will help with traction.  The city promised to spread sand on side streets today, but few people seem to have seen it happen.

Supposedly a big problem for KCMO is last year’s budget cut. The city stopped hiring private contractors to plow side streets and is now relying on a smaller crew of city employees.  This left the city with no flexibility to deal with a bigger than normal storm.  City crews couldn’t get to many side streets before the snow compacted down into ice.

With frigid temps and more snow on the way, it will be a long road out of this mess.  How are conditions in your own neighborhood?

Categories: Transportation, Weather, .


Comments

15 Comments so far

  1. Brent on January 4, 2010 10:26 pm

    North Hyde Park, we’ve yet to see a snow plow of any type outside of our neighbor on a four-wheeler. But, it’s two slipper blocks to a main artery at which point, it’s pretty smooth sailing.

  2. jferg on January 4, 2010 11:08 pm

    I couldn’t tell a whole lot of difference between Independence and KCMO on the way to work today, so it’s not just KCMO specific. Our side street here in Independence didn’t get any attention until it had ~2 inches of snow packed on from the first storm, and the couple of passes that have been made since haven’t made much difference.

  3. Shannon on January 5, 2010 7:35 am

    Shawnee gets the win. We live on a relatively minor residential street, and it’s been regularly plowed. The road is dry and safe. My parents live in Olathe, so I can say for sure that the residential streets are better here than they are down there.

  4. Dean on January 5, 2010 9:21 am

    Yep, midtown is a complete mess. I live off of State Line on the Kansas side, and our roads have been taken care of. I tried to go out for a winter run the other day and made the mistake of crossing over into Missouri. West Plaza is not the place to decide not to plow – it’s extremely hilly, and I have no idea how residents there are getting anywhere (besides just coasting downhill).

  5. DLC on January 5, 2010 9:23 am

    I was surprised at how well the arterial streets looked this morning on my commute–several were crystal clear. The side streets in my neighborhood however are ghastly, even though we did see a plow last week for the first time in 3 years.

  6. Tony on January 5, 2010 11:02 am

    I live in Waldo as do my parents and our streets are complete sheets of ice right now. It’s worse for my folks as their street is on a pretty steep hill and has been the site of numerous accidents and many more near accidents. The problem will be exacerbated as more and more of KC Mo’s tax base fleas for the suburbs since we are tired of poor city services and rampant crime.

  7. Matty on January 5, 2010 12:20 pm

    My entire neighborhood is pretty bad, but 41st between Main and Oak has to take the cake. It’s basically a giant sheet of really thick snow/ice, with two tread marks of extremely slippery ice where cars have been driving. It’s very dangerous. Especially for a well-traveled road with a Starbucks on it.

  8. bboybc on January 5, 2010 4:33 pm

    I’ve seen plenty of unplowed side streets in Brookside, South Plaza, and Hyde Park. On Grand Street, just south of the plaza, the bottom layer is several inches of ice, but it is completely uneven. My car slid side-to-side on the street as it went in and out of the tire grooves that have been dug into the ice.

  9. Ae on January 5, 2010 6:54 pm

    Yeah, the old northeast needs to be added to your list of especially bad. I haven’t seen a plow past Independence Ave. into the neighborhoods at all, and it’s hilly up here.

    Used to live in Waldo and was frequently frustrated in the obvious disparity between it and Brookside. At least Waldo is flat.

  10. Greg Smith on January 6, 2010 9:05 am

    In Old Hyde Park, the problem I have is with the street parking. Not only is it difficult to park by the curb, it seems dangerous as the side-streets are so poorly plowed, there ends up only being one lane for traffic when there is normally two. The 2-3 inches of ice on the side-street roads are just ridiculous.

  11. ballz on January 6, 2010 10:41 am

    my hood of columbus park is a nightmare, but considering they can’t even get the highways plowed it is not a surprise. i guess all of those years of living in wisconsin had me expecting more out of the city.

  12. Joe Medley on January 6, 2010 9:11 pm

    I live on Holmes in North Hyde Park. It’s been plowed multiple times in each storm, yet the streets a block either side of it never got touched.

    City Hall says it doesn’t have money to hire plows for the side streets. Yet they had enough money to send someone out to butcher the maple and linden that sit between my sidewalk and the street. City code says trees have to be clear of branches up to 7 1/2 feet. Every branch except one was obviously well above that. I’m going to measure the one tomorrow. I think it might be above 7 1/2 half feet too.

    Thanks, City Hall. You’re the best!

  13. Joe Medley on January 6, 2010 9:14 pm

    I almost forgot. They left a mess of twigs all over my yard that can’t touch until this mess melts.

  14. Heather on January 7, 2010 8:57 am

    Old Northeast is a nightmare. And rear wheel drive small pickup trucks + hills covered in ice = big time danger.

  15. Paula on January 9, 2010 11:05 am

    Old Northeast is so bad I can’t even get out to go to the store for food. The city waste so much money on useless services that nobody cares about, that now they say they don’t have enough money to provide the most important basic services. This is not right. It is going to be warming up this week. If they don’t plow and salt in full force this week, are streets will turn to ice. They need to forget about the budget and hire private contracters to help. We pay taxes for services that we are not getting.

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