St. Paul to residents: We hear you on plowing frustrations

St. Paul's snow emergency decision-making explained

St. Paul officials explain what leads to a snow emergency being declared. FOX 9's Rob Olson has the latest.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - With the snow still falling, the questions began coming into St. Paul Public Works. Why can’t a snow emergency begin right away?

After all, that would get plows on neighborhood streets much sooner. It’s the way the system is set up, the public works director explains. And they’re looking at a way to do it better.

The standard approach

St. Paul's snow emergency decision-making

FOX 9's Rob Olson learns what's behind the decision-making for snow emergencies.

What we know:

St. Paul called a snow emergency on Wednesday, already the second of the season, to begin at 9 p.m.

The first phase attacks downtown streets, major arterial roads and parts of residential streets, requiring people to get vehicles out of the way or risk getting towed. The second phase begins at 8 a.m. Thursday, clearing other parts of residential streets after vehicles are moved a second time.

"In the system we have right now," explained Public Works Director Sean Kershaw, "the snow emergency starts at 9 o’clock on the day when you declare it."

It was declared Wednesday because plow drivers had worked all night Tuesday dealing with the snow as it fell, just trying to keep up on the major thoroughfares.

"So we needed to spend yesterday and last night, because of the timing of the snow, focused on those main streets.  And we’ve got to do the main streets just to keep the city safe."

Then, the drivers needed a break to rest during the day before working another overnight shift to begin the snow emergency routes.

A better way?

What they're saying:

What this system means is that residential streets often remain untouched for many hours after the snow stops.

Residents, even some city leaders, wondered why they couldn’t start sooner.

"It’s a really good question the public was asking," Kershaw said.

The rules are the way the are to give the public plenty of notice to move cars from the plow routes.

"We think there’s a better way of doing this, so we’re testing out, starting in a month, two new models for alternate side parking," Kershaw said.

The new system was first tested last year in two neighborhoods, and seemed to work, but data was limited because of lack of snowfall. But, it’s a system that would get plows on residential streets right away.

"Because in a model like that, when we’re done with the main streets, we can give the drivers a short break and then they can immediately start going into residentials," Kershaw said.

An entirely different approach

How it works:

In the alternate side parking model, cars are limited to one side of the street for the entirety of the winter season.

In the testing, both last winter and this one, the period runs from January until mid-April.

Each week, the parking shifts to the other side of the street.  The effect is that residential streets remain free of vehicles on 3/4 of the roadway all the time.

Plows can get to them right away and return as much as they need.

It came at the suggestion of the plow drivers themselves, and similar systems are used in other northern cities, such as Duluth.

"We think this is a better model, but snow operations is so important to the residents of St. Paul and to all the leaders in St. Paul that we want to make sure it actually will work better," Kershaw said.