Bend plow crews, contractors wage battle with snow
City of Bend officials say they’ll have plowed through each of the 850 miles of roads in Bend by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
Twelve city crews and 18 hired contractors have been working around the clock for the past 48 hours to clear the roads of snow. City crews were focusing on main roads and areas with high traffic, like hospitals and schools. They said those areas are looking alright, so now they’re joining contractors to help out residential areas.
People’s cars are buried in snow and some on the street are boxed in by berms. Bend’s director of streets and operations advises people to clear the roads to help plows do their jobs.
“If you have the option to not park in the street, that’s a huge help to winter operations,” David Abbas said Tuesday. “If you can have your cars, garbage cans, things like that off the road, it makes snow plowing much more effective and efficient. ”
Abbas said once crews go through every road in Bend they’ll reassess everything — then plow some more.
Here’s the city of Bend’s Tuesday evening snow-related update:
Today’s snow operations wrap up : There were/are 34 pieces of equipment on the streets today – the City’s and the private contractors – and we’ll work all night again. Our efforts are still focused on town as a whole, rather than the specific emergency snow zones. We will try and get completely through the town at least once before tomorrow morning. All the main streets – arterials and collectors – are in decent shape, so we’ve put some of our staff and equipment into local residential streets.
We’re not declaring a snow zone emergency today. In reference to those emergency snow zone areas:
· Tonight we’re emphasizing Wall and Bond streets downtown; widening and storing snow in appropriate locations
· We hit Chandler and Courtney / Conners today.
· Portland Ave (11 th to College Way) and Broadway / Tumalo are passable, not a safety issue at the time of evaluation
We’ll see if the additional snow fall forecast this evening is accurate and assess the need for areas of focus or snow zone declaration tomorrow.
Roof clearing info – Should I shovel the snow off my roof? https://www.bendoregon.gov/Home/Components/News/News/3254/29
Berms across driveways
The biggest complaint we hear is about plows pushing snow across people’s driveways and creating a berm that has to be shoveled. We know this is an inconvenience and we appreciate everyone’s help in working to clean up from this giant storm. We do not have the equipment or manpower to alleviate these inconveniences for all our residents. For elderly and disabled residents who need help shoveling, we have a Volunteer Coordinator who can help connect those in need with the generous citizens who have volunteered to be help community members.
For elderly and disabled residents who need help shoveling, our volunteer coordinator will first direct them to their local Neighborhood Associations. Most (but not all) associations participate in the Good Samaritan Program, whereas we pair a senior or a person with limited mobility to a neighbor in their immediate area who can assist them with their drive or run to the market. We field remaining folks to resources they may not be familiar with including NextDoor.com or to Craigslist if they are simply seeking someone to hire to clear their drive. Any remaining requests we triage on a case by case basis, should they have financial constraints or other considerations that would preclude assistance from the above resources.
Delay for City administration on Wednesday Feb. 27
City Hall and other City administrative offices will be on a two-hour delay tomorrow in anticipation of road clearing needs and to improve everyone’s safety. All emergency personnel – public safety and street operations – will be working as usual, however.
More information: https://www.bendoregon.gov/government/departments/streets/street-operations/winter
