City Adding More Trucks, Crews To Effort To Clear Snow From Side Streets
Updated 02/04/15 - 11:12 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With many side streets in Chicago still a snowy, slushy mess two days after a blizzard blanketed the city in 19 inches of snow, city crews were stepping up their efforts to clear neighborhood streets.
Fresh snow Tuesday night only added to the problem, as up to 1.5 more inches fell on the city.
Wednesday morning, the city deployed 650 pieces of equipment to remove snow from side streets – including 315 snow plows, and 335 pieces of heavy construction equipment; such as dump trucks, backhoes, front-end loaders, and high-lifts – to help haul away the piles of snow created by plows. Overall, that's 150 more pieces of equipment than the city used to clear snow on Tuesday.
In addition, the city has dispatched approximately 300 laborers from the Water Department and Transportation Department to help shovel snow near schools, parks, bus stops, police stations, firehouses, and fire hydrants.
Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Charles Williams said an extraordinary snowfall demands an extraordinary response.
"We will not stop until every street is clear," he said. "As people are taking that snow off their cars, and are taking it out of the sidewalks, it's all beginning to pile up. As we plow to the end of the block, you end up with huge mounds of snow that creates a line of sight problem for people walking. It creates a problem for kids playing on it. So we're going to remove that snow so that those streets are safe and passable."
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Officials said city crews will work 12 hours on, and 12 hours off, until every street has been cleared.
Williams said there is no lack of salt, and said the budget can handle what has fallen in recent days because the winter was so mild until now.
Snow that is trucked away will not be dumped in the Chicago River or Lake Michigan. Instead, Williams said, it will be dumped on vacant city land, which he said will be cleaned once the snow melts.
Many local residents have been fed up with the pace of the city's snow-clearing efforts.
For example, in the Ahsburn neighborhood, frustrated residents on one block teamed up to shovel the street, and push vehicles out of the snow, after waiting hours for city crews to clear the street.
Residents said there have been two kinds of drivers in Ashburn since the blizzard: those who have been stuck in the snow, and those who will be.
"Gotta help the neighbors," one Ashburn resident said.
So where were city crews?
"I don't know. You have to ask the mayor about that," he added.
"I haven't seen no one plow nothing. You see all the snow," one woman said.
Frank Barasch said he and his wife have called the alderman's office for help, but were told the alderman's office would refer their request to the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
"I feel sorry for people that have to get out, or if they ever had emergency vehicles that had to get in, they could get stuck just like everybody else," Mickey Barasch said.
Two men in Woodlawn spent two hours shoveling snow Wednesday morning to make room for a car to get out. Even SUVs driving down the snow-covered street were slipping and sliding.
"They claim that they plowed it already. It hasn't been plowed," Bernard Hatch said. "This snow bank was so high that it's impossible to get this car out."
Hatch said the city's response to the blizzard could have been a lot better.
"Even if they hired a private company to come and take some of the load off the city if they don't have as many workers, but this is ridiculous," he said.
Residents can track snow plows in their neighborhood at chicagoshovels.org. The city said people also can get updates on snow removal efforts by following the Streets and Sanitation Department on Twitter @Streetsandsan.
