Redmond tackles dangerous, icy streets

Thick layers of snow and ice on roads in Redmond have prompted the city to close down a section of Southwest Sixth Street on Tuesday night in an effort to remove snow and ice from streets and sidewalks

“The conditions are less than ideal and pretty dangerous and it wasn’t the snow that was the problem,” said Annie McVay, Parks Division manager with the city of Redmond Public Works.

Conditions are so bad, they have impacted businesses in the area.

“People can’t park, and it’s unsafe,” said Karen George, owner at AK’s Tea Room.

So the section of Sixth Street is closed overnight.

“So our focus tonight is to get down to the downtown corridor, to allow more access to the businesses,” McVay said.

It’s an unprecedented move by the city and the work is expected to take all night.

Business owners on Southwest Sixth Street said they were excited by the extra effort.

“I think the city is really trying hard to get people down to shop, and yeah, it’s a good thing,” said Lisa Goad, owner at The Back Porch & Company.

But many think it’s too little, too late.

“This started Thursday, Friday, so I think they should have taken action a little sooner to clean this,” George said. “Because where I’ve lived in England, this would have been cleaned.”

The city said they were prepared, but could not compete with Mother Nature.

“It was the freezing rain, and since then, the freeze and the thaw that created an ice pack that conventional plowing just can’t get to,” McVay said.

A similar sentiment was offered by ODOT, which is responsible for state highways.

“We were ready when the weather hit, but it came with freezing rain, snow, freezing rain, snow,” said Peter Murphy, Region 4 public information’s officer with ODOT. “That was a challenge for us. The de-icer we have doesn’t work really well at all when it gets real cold and when ice is already down.”

Both ODOT and the city of Redmond said they continue to work hard, plow when and where they can, and put down cinders and de-icer.

“We’re out there working as hard as we can.,” Murphy said.”There’s nothing more we can put on the street. We’re doing what we can, so we all have to work together to make sure the roads are as safe as possible.”