City of Cleveland discusses winter weather response

CLEVELAND — In a press conference Tuesday, Cleveland’s director of public works briefed reporters on the city’s response to the winter storm event that shut down schools and caused hazardous driving conditions Tuesday.

The director, Frank Williams, said they had an average of 49 to 54 trucks out throughout the evening servicing the main thoroughfares, keeping them in passable shape.

“We did get an enhanced band of snow that lasted a little over an hour, that was pretty significant, that we are catching up from now and hoping to transition, after lunch here, into our residential roadways to plow them out as well,” he said.

On main roads, he said we’re seeing fair to good conditions. They’re going to work on plowing and salting the residential areas before returning to the main routes and cleaning them up for the evening.

When asked by reporters about the accuracy of the city’s GPS snow plow tracker map, implemented by the Bibb administration in 2022, Williams said they’re watching and checking on areas as it relates to sensor and sensor data.

“As it relates to the accuracy of the map, as we know, man makes it, and sometimes there are some tweaks that need to happen, but for the most part we’re seeing pretty accurate readings from our equipment,” he said.

He said it’s worth keeping in mind that the only thing you’re seeing on this map is when streets have been plowed. For example, in some areas where a plow wasn’t needed but salt was used, you wouldn’t see a color change.

When asked how he felt about the city’s response to the first big snowfall of the season, Williams said it’s still early and hard to tell. However, after the event, they have a debriefing with the staff to hear what worked and what didn’t.

“The idea in snow and ice control, especially when considering every event being different, we have to take information in and continue to learn and get better at each event,” he said.

At this time, he said he thinks they’re doing well. He said they were on the roads when the winter event started, they stayed with it and the equipment is holding up.

With staffing, he said they’re doing decent as it relates to drivers and that now it’s about getting them trained and ready in between winter events. In particular, he said they’re focusing on plowing techniques. Last year, he said, we saw lots of ice and not a lot of accumulation above 4 inches, so this is the first time for those who joined late last season or just this season.

He said the idea is to work on quality plowing, from the center of the street to the curb. He said if you get it right on the first try, you can lessen the number of passes on a street.

They’ve done fair, he said, but that they can do better, and that just takes reps. He said he will continue pushing staff to do better with each winter event.

If someone believes they have property damage because of a city plow, they can contact 311 for assistance.