SNOW AND ICE CONTROL

SNOW AND ICE CONTROL PLAN
2009-2010

Regional Emergency Snow Plow Route Maps

Unincorporated Washoe County Snow Plow Route Maps

 

Purpose

Delivery of emergency snow response services to the citizens of Washoe County, and those who travel our streets during snow storms, is a primary responsibility of the County Public Works Department. The Department takes pride in performing this service in an efficient and effective manner, with an emergency snow response plan that is both proven and economical for normal winter weather in Washoe County’s rural areas.

The goal of Washoe County is to provide fiscally responsible emergency response services during snow events, supporting the safety and mobility of our transportation system by plowing and treating county streets as efficiently as possible, keeping priority streets passable, minimizing disruption to traffic, and keeping costs to a minimum.

The purpose of this plan is to annually review our snow and ice control methods and procedures, and to ensure that all work is done in a safe, efficient and environmentally sound manner.  As a result of this planning effort, Washoe County residents will have priority streets that are safe and accessible.  Finally, because Truckee Meadows is considered a non-attainment area for air quality, the annual plan must be designed to meet the new Washoe County Air Quality Mandates.  

Background

Washoe County’s road inventory contains approximately 700 paved center lane miles and another 404 miles of gravel roads for a total of 1,104 center lane miles divided into 71 snow and ice control routes.  Priority is given to arterial and collector streets along with school routes and bus routes.  These are labeled as priority 1 routes.  Next to be serviced would be normal neighborhood streets labeled priority 2 routes, followed by all other types of streets that fall into priority 3 routes, such as cul-de-sacs and dead-end and industrial streets.  

Alerting Crews

During November through March the County’s Director of Roads and Crew Supervisors begin daily monitoring of the weather forecasts for any approaching winter storms.    The Public Works Director will be kept appraised of the situation on a regular basis, especially when required resources exceed the available county owned resources.

 

           
RESPONSE FOR PROJECTED OVERNIGHT EVENT:

Based on experience in the Truckee Meadows, management generally establishes a start time of 3:00 AM the next day to allow enough time to treat priority one routes as identified by the snow response plan before morning rush-hour traffic.  

RESPONSE FOR EVENT DEVELOPING AND/OR CONTINUING DURING THE WORK DAY:

If an inclement weather event continues throughout the course of the day and is expected to continue into the night impacting commuter traffic, management may hold some staff past normal end of work period. 

In the Truckee Meadows, this may extend until commuter traffic has dissipated, but generally no longer than 7:30 PM.

Available Vehicles and Staff

For the 2009-2010 snow season, Roads will have a total of twenty-six (26) trucks mounted with plows and/or sand spreaders, twenty (20) staged in the Truckee Meadows, three (3) at Incline Village and three (3) at the Gerlach sub-station.  

The Road Division has a total available staff of sixty-four (64) employees; forty-seven (47) in the Truckee Meadows, eight (8) at Incline and nine (9) at Gerlach.   

Salt / Sand staging areas

Washoe County has three (3) main storage areas and seven (7) satellite stations for the storage of deicing materials. The Road Division utilizes three (3) main stock piles of salt/sand with main supplies residing at the Longley Lane facility, Incline Village sub-station, Gerlach sub-station.

  

Sanding and Plowing Procedures

Once a storm has been identified as heading into the Reno area, staff tracks it and determines what resources will be needed to treat the event. Individual operators will determine in their assigned route when to apply deicing material.  Each crew member commences to treating all priority “One“ routes in their assigned area. If the snow event is under control and all priority “One" routes have been treated then staff will turn their efforts into treating priority “two / three routes” only when all routes have been serviced with a pass in and out will staff turn their attention to clearing all street from shoulder to shoulder.

Storm Clean-up

After a storm event, street sweepers will be sent out to remove all applied salt/sand materials as expeditiously and safely as weather and road conditions permit. 

  

Washoe County Air Quality Mandates

Because air quality in Washoe County has not met EPA Standards, Washoe County Health Department has mandated new regulations to improve air quality.  These mandates effect how our snow and ice control program is conducted.  The goal of this program is:

1) Reduce the amount of sand spread on County streets for snow and ice control

2) Reduce the time required to sweep up this sand after a storm event, and

3) Change the type of sand used to a harder material.  The effect of this rule will be to reduce the amount of particulate matter (PM) entrained in the ambient air as a result of blowing winds, the roads drying out, and vehicles traveling over the sand.

PRIORITY  1

Roads which are identified as major arterial and collectors, major structures, overpasses, bridges, steep grades, school bus routes at or above 6,000 feet, emergency vehicle routes, fire station sites, schools and freeway feeder streets.

PRIORITY  2

Roads which are identified as secondary arterial, secondary collectors, residential roads, all remaining school bus routes.

PRIORITY  3

All unpaved routes, cul-de-sacs and County jogging/bicycle paths.  Snow/ice control activities are staged out of these four maintenance yards:  Longley Lane, Incline Village, Gerlach, and Vya.  From these locations, crews address the prioritized snow routes.  Each location is equipped and staffed to function independently