West Seattle Blog...

WSB Forum » Open Discussion

1. WSB
   Member Profile

   

   Tomorrow SDOT is welcoming reporters one by one to hear about this year's new "snow plan" (and take a look at what's described as a GPS-equipped snowplow). We of course have our appointment set. Of course we have questions galore but YOU probably have even better ones. What do you most want to know about this year's snow plan?

   Posted 2 years ago #         

2. MrJT
   Member Profile

   

   Has Grace changed her arrogant attitude about driving a snowplow? It may be a skill she needs when she's out of a job in November.

   Posted 2 years ago #         

3. ellenater
   Member Profile

   

   TR, I DID have tons of questions but now they are gone. :( What are some of yours? I guess I'd like to know the overall plan and how it's different from last year.

   Posted 2 years ago #         

4. lighthouse
   Member Profile

   Will the plan be published online so the public can read it?

   Will there be a public comment period on the plan, or is it "what you see is what you get"?

   EDIT TO ADD -- A couple more:

   * One of the key issues in the Dec 2008 storm was the abysmal bus service. I know that Metro runs the buses, but Metro will just point back at the SDOT and say they couldn't drive on unplowed roads. So this is going to require the two groups (SDOT and Metro) work together to address this issue. Therefore, what is SDOT and Metro doing to make sure that at least some main routes are running and routes that are canceled or re-routed properly identified and that info provided to bus riders?

   * We were very fortunate in the Dec 2008 storm that no major power losses happened. We may not be so lucky in the next big winter storm, so what is City Light doing to make sure that the main feed lines are maintained so they won't be taken out by heavy snow fall? What is City Light and SDOT doing to make sure that City Light crews can actually reach downed lines after a heavy snow fall? (Does City Light have any snow clearing equipment of their own, or are they dependent on SDOT for this?)

   I'll probably come up with more as I think about this longer.

   EDIT #2 TO ADD:

   * In the Dec 2008 storm, there was a bunch of reports on WSB from people who saw SPD officers putting out "road closed" signs and similar tasks that one might think SDOT would be responsible for. Is this an appropriate use of SPD resources in a winter storm? Is the plan to continue to use SPD for these tasks?

   (What I'm getting at with the above is that a SPD cruiser even with chains is still 2WD and can't get around well in snow. Plus, a cruiser can only carry maybe 20 signs. If SDOT sent out a 4x4 truck with chains, they could carry 100 signs and deal with many road closures in one trip without distracting SPD from dealing with actual emergencies.)

   EDIT #3 TO ADD:

   * Does the City of Seattle motorpool have an accurate count of what 4x4 vehicles the city owns? Does the motor pool have an adequate supply of chains for those vehicles? Is there a process in place where those vehicles can be shared across departments? For example, I know the Parks department has 4x4 F250 trucks -- can SDOT (or SPD, for that matter) use those vehicles if needed (and does the motor pool have chains for those vehicles)?

   As a supplement to the above: Does the city have any plans to buy some smaller plows and blowers to mount on city 4x4 trucks? These couldn't clear roads, but could still be used to clear parking lots and walkways.

   One final edit: The point of the last point above is to make sure the city is using ALL resources in the event of another storm. The first step in that process is making sure the city knows what equipment it has and making sure that equipment is ready for winter duty.

   Posted 2 years ago #         

5. WSB
   Member Profile

   

   thanks, lighthouse.

   one thing about snow closure signs - most of them are put out well in advance - if you live anywhere near a notable hill, you'll see them placed out by street signs, waiting - any day now, probably, usually by mid-October.

   my main questions for starters are about communication. sdot and other agencies have made some progress in the year since but they still are not utilizing twitter, blogs, etc. ANYWHERE NEAR the true real-time nature they could be doing so - so I'm wondering if they are preparing to, and how so.

   Posted 2 years ago #         

6. lighthouse
   Member Profile

   Obviously, a lot of my questions may be answered in the plan. It's hard to ask questions about a revised plan without having first read the plan, which is why my first question was whether it would be available for everyone to see.

   For the SPD/signs item, this isn't about the police moving the pre-positioned signs (like the ones at the top and bottom of Holden between 35th and Delridge) into place. I don't have a direct link to it, but there was some comments at the time about people seeing SPD just driving around and finding streets that weren't safe and putting up "road closed" signs. Maybe the view is that only SPD can make the judgement call on whether a street is safe or not? I don't know, but at the time it seemed like something SDOT could have been out doing instead.

   Posted 2 years ago #         

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.