Curbing Snowy Conditions

Last winter was easily the worst in recent memory, with Governor Raimondo declaring a state of emergency in the wake of winter storm Juno and federal relief coming from FEMA. But what’s still talked about a year later are the conditions of the roads in Providence and the City’s inability to keep up with the snow.

Here are some numbers from last year according to the National Weather Service. January 1-March 31 of 2015 reached all-time lows, with the three month daily average sitting at a bitter 26 degrees. The winter of ‘95-‘96 may still wear the crown for snowiest Providence winter on record with anywhere from 90-100 inches total, but last year’s 76.2 inches takes the cake for the simple fact that not once in three months did we experience any significant melting. February alone saw 31.8 inches, beating out a 53 year old record set in 1962. That’s just shy of Providence’s seasonal average of 34.3.

On many roads across the city, pavement seemed to have been replaced by slick, bumpy layers of ice, which of course exacerbated our annual crop of fresh potholes. Side streets were a lost cause and stretches of main roads were barely passable, causing many to joke that they didn’t know Mayor Elorza’s “One Providence” meant one lane of traffic. All of this begs the question: What, if anything, has the City done to ensure that the conditions of last year’s snowpocalypse aren’t about to be repeated?

Accumulation by the Numbers
Let’s address this right now – last winter was especially difficult to manage. The volume of accumulation, the back to back to back snowstorms, the failure to reach temperatures above freezing. Mother Nature did New England absolutely no favors last winter and it’s safe to say that cities all across the area struggled to keep up with her ferocity. Boston.com reported on July 13 – yes, July – that the last of Boston’s snow farms had finally melted. That’s 22 days after the summer solstice. That said, there were problems with Providence’s efforts from flake one.

“I think the City got a little behind on the first storm in terms of moving the snow,” says Russell Knight, Director of the Providence Department of Public Works (DPW). “They weren’t able to clear the roads adequately, so it froze.”
Each subsequent storm built off of that initial foundation of frozen precipitation, making roads more and more difficult to clear, let alone navigate. “Because of that, some of the side streets couldn’t be plowed and that caused a snowball effect,” he adds.

Knight, who came on as DPW director in late March, found himself inheriting the problem of what to do with the frozen streets and unwieldy snowbanks. Now as he approaches his first full winter at the helm of the DPW, he has to deal with the looming shadow of last year’s problems.

Chief among the concerns of residents and business owners was that the City had failed to plow streets from curb-to-curb, which narrowed major roadways and made them difficult, if not flat out dangerous, to drive on. Wickenden and College Hill, already steep and formidable in the mildest of winter conditions, became especially perilous.

Though Knight acknowledges that the City didn’t do itself any favors by not sufficiently dealing with winter storm Juno, he points out that in some cases getting streets cleared curb-to-curb was impossible. “People were parked on the streets and vehicles weren’t moved,” he says. “We really need to get cars off the streets and parking bans need to be enforced more rigorously. People say they can’t find [off-street parking]. There’s always a way to find it. Coordinate with friends and neighbors, or even business owners. It’s the community helping the community. They’re going to have to find a place and they need to start now.”

“Leo Perrotta, the Parking Administrator, has done an excellent job the past several years communicating when snow-related parking bans are going into effect and when they were lifted, by email notices,” says Paterson Park resident David Parr. Parr, like many residents, expressed frustrations with neighbors who didn’t move their vehicles prior to plows hitting the road. Others wondered why the City wasn’t taking a more active role in moving them.

“The City needs to deal with cars that remain parked on main streets,” suggests Blackstone resident Barbara Badre, specifically citing business areas like Hope Street and Wayland. “Something needs to be decided on how to deal with people who park illegally overnight, prevent snowplows from getting the snow cleared and cause so much inconvenience.”

Donna Personeus, Executive Director of the Thayer Street District Management Authority (TSDMA), agrees. “They need to aggressively tow cars,” she says, “but it went beyond that. They never came back to clean up [the street]. Busses couldn’t even get down Thayer.” In the end, TSDMA ended up paying for removal of snow that the City should have dealt with.

The City’s Communications Director, Evan England, confirmed that the City does intend to be more aggressive when it comes to towing those in violation of parking bans. “That’s why it’s crucial that people know about parking bans. It’s never ideal to tow. At the end of the day it’s not about punishing individuals, it’s about getting to those curbs.”

Another major complaint was that plows were piling snow up on corners. Though shoveling sidewalks in front of homes and businesses remains the responsibility of residents and business owners, frustrations mounted higher than snow banks after pedestrian access to the street was hindered by mountains of snow.

“People find themselves trapped at corners, unable to climb over the barrier of snow to get onto the street,” says Wayland Square resident Marcia Lieberman.

“This is especially important for those who cannot climb over the snow mounds. Basic safety requires that there must be a place where we are able to get onto the street.”

“Don’t get me started on corners that have been left uncleared or, worse, plowed under a mini-mountain of snow by overzealous city plow operators,” adds Wayland Square resident Arthur Norman.

According to Knight, “adjoining property owners are responsible for clearing pedestrian access to walkways.” Young East Siders with strong backs, take note.

Then there’s the concern that some streets hadn’t been plowed at all, a problem that plagued the entire city. Knight points out that Providence’s nearly 2,100 streets come to a total of 375 miles. That includes even tiny side streets and dead ends. DPW has been talking with its inspectors to, among other things, discuss which of those smaller streets had been missed, which streets had proved problematic and how better to ensure that all roads are dealt with.

“[People] need to be understanding that the primary routes in the city, the thoroughfares, are going to be the top priority to make sure that all of the emergency services have access and can operate,” points out Michael Borg, director of the Providence Emergency Management Agency (PEMA). “The last priority are the smaller streets, but it all gets done.”

Small streets in lower income neighborhoods in particular seemed neglected last year, but a drive down even the most prominent East Side roads proved treacherous. Borg adds that this year all city plows and contracted vendors will be equipped with GPS devices that will allow DPW to track which streets have been plowed and, should calls come in about any that were missed, dispatch plows to deal with them. Until then, the City asks for patience.

“When you get a real heavy snowfall the plow may run down your street and an hour later there’s three inches on top of it,” Borg argues, but when it comes to plowing, patience tends to run out faster than the snow removal budget. 

Upping the Ante, and the Budget
There were no shortage of citizen complaints with last year’s snow removal and the City has been taking them all to heart. For starters, the budget for snow removal is up $300,000 over last year’s budget for a total of $1.9 million. It’s worth noting that by February 11 last year, WPRI was reporting that the City had already spent two-thirds of its $1.6 million budget. FEMA will be reimbursing the state up to 75% of any eligible costs from last winter – “overtime, procurement of vendors, snow removal that goes above and beyond the normal costs of the snowstorm,” explains Borg – but at the time of press what that total will be is still being worked out. According to Borg, the process of dealing with FEMA is a slow one.

The City’s fleet of plows is also larger this year. In total, Providence DPW has at its disposal 30 large trucks to plow the main roads and 11 smaller trucks that are better equipped for side streets and dead ends. On top of that, Park and Recreation has two large trucks and eight pickups armed with plows, and 95 independent vendors are lined up to assist the City with snow removal.

“We now have two city trucks per ward and we’re bringing in vendors to augment our workforce if needed in big storms,” says Knight.

East Side residents frequently brought up the idea of imposing alternating side parking for people with on-street parking stickers. While the City sees merit in this tactic, putting something like that into effect requires a lot of effort and infrastructure.

“As we were flushing out the program it was something we realized would take an extended educational period to get right,” says England. The City is hoping to begin a pilot program for alternating side parking in warmer months and possibly implementing it next winter. “The last thing we wanted to do was implement it incorrectly.”

As for the issue of where to put snow in the event of precipitation like last year’s, the City will utilize parks and municipal parking lots as “snow farms.” They’ve also worked out a deal with the 195 Commission to use 100,000 square feet of the 195 land for snow if necessary. One thing that’s not on the table is dumping excess snow into any of Providence’s waterways.

“That’s highly frowned upon by the DEM,” explains Knight. “That’s not one of our plans because there is a lot of stuff in that snow, whether it be oils or salts, that can contribute to ecological problems, so we don’t want to go down that road if we don’t have to.”

“Coming out of last winter shaped a lot of what will be happening this year,” says Borg. “From my perspective one of the best things we’ve done has been holding a series of meetings with all of the critical city departments and discussed how we handled last year and what we’re going to change. All of those discussions culminated in a table-top exercise that was conducted [in December] with all of the key players in the city.”

This exercise, facilitated by Borg, had critical decision makers and department leaders gather to hash out a number of scenarios. Beginning with a typical, light snowfall of only a few inches and working up through heavier weather incidents like a mild storm, blizzard or a dreaded ice storm – “probably the worst case scenario in a winter disaster,” says Borg – decision makers were able to experiment with hypothetical conditions to see how they might respond.

“Everybody in the room understands and walks away knowing what a department’s responsibilities are, what assets they have and what actions they’re going to take,” says Borg “It’s all synchronized within the city. It’s not just one department acting on its own, it’s one unified action by the City.”

Another big player this year is the newly acquired CodeRed system, an emergency notification system purchased by the state and given to all municipalities. Used for any number of emergency notifications, in regards to winter weather emergencies, CodeRed can be used to notify residents or parking and travel bans, as well as other public safety announcements. CodeRed is available as a free app on Apple and Android devices and once signed up, residents can receive important emergency notices via email, text, voicemail or landline. The idea, ultimately, is that this will allow the City to reach more people more quickly in the event of a situation where citizens would need to act. Residents can sign up for these alerts through the app or at www.providenceri.com/PEMA/codered.

Not intended to replace previous methods of announcing parking and driving bans – emailing residents with parking stickers, social media, updating websites – CodeRed is just an additional tool for getting the word out. 

Communication at the Forefront
DPW has been meeting with neighborhood groups to discuss specific problems and to try to assure residents that this winter will be different.

“College Hill Neighborhood Association (CHNA) has met several times with Captain Russell Knight to identify problem areas from last year and request curb to curb clearing, and with the mayor’s office to request better scheduling and communication of parking bans,” says CHNA President Josh Eisen.

Personeus adds that the new DPW head has generally been much more responsive and open to feedback. “I get a very timely response from him. As someone who has to manage an area on College Hill I’m very happy about that. It’s a positive. I felt that they better understand the needs of the area, but only time will tell.”

“We’re prepared this year. There has been a tremendous effort on behalf of the City and all of the key players to be ready for this coming winter,” Borg says, boldly. “I feel very confident in all of the efforts and work that everyone has put in to respond and keep Providence working and operational.”
Knight echoes that sentiment, while also asking for some compassion from citizens.

“Our men and women are ready to serve the city of Providence as best they can, and they’re going to. Our plow drivers are out there sometimes for 24 hours straight. We don’t have a second team.”

Tensions run high on both sides when it comes to the handling of winter storms. For residents, blizzards aren’t just tallied in inches of snowfall, but time and money lost because of school cancellations, keeping businesses closed or not being able to get to work. For the City, even a relentless series of storms like last year’s is a series of problems they’re required to deal with. Failure to do so, regardless of the circumstances, is exactly that: failure. Though DPW and PEMA assure that they’re ready this time, for residents it’s difficult to shake the memory of last year.

So far we have yet to experience any kind of snowfall we should be concerned about. Maybe with El Niño doing whatever it is El Niño does, we’ll catch a break. We aren’t getting our hopes up, but everyone seems to agree; the best thing for residents, city officials, plow drivers, everyone, would be no snow at all. This is New England, after all, so anything could happen.