Common Council

Snow Plow Update, 12/29/2020

A winter storm will be hitting Madison tonight. Streets Division plows will be out on the salt routes. Traveling through the city tonight and tomorrow morning will be challenging. Expect snow-covered and slippery streets tonight and on through the morning on Wednesday, especially on residential streets.

The storm is due to begin around 4pm, which will make the evening commute very difficult. Even though the Streets plows will be out on the salt routes at this time, active snowfalls always make slippery traveling conditions because it re-covers recently plowed streets. Be sure to make good choices if you must be on the roads tonight. Be slow. Be patient. Be alert.  

As noted above, plow trucks will be servicing the salt routes. This is the normal procedure for Streets during an active snow. Thirty-two trucks will be plowing and salting the main thoroughfares.  Three additional trucks will be out spreading sand on the hills, curves, and intersections that do not meet the salt route requirements. These trucks will be looping through their routes for the entirety of the storm.

Residential streets will not be plowed while it is actively snowing. The Streets Division does not begin plowing all streets until the storm is at or near its end. This is the standard operating procedure.

Forecasts show that this storm will end sometime in the early morning hours tomorrow. If there are three or more inches of snow on the roads, a plowing operation will begin once the storm is at or near its end. We will send out an additional announcement providing more details about the plowing operations.

Residential streets will be snow-covered and will be snow-covered for most of the day. Assuming a plowing operation begins on Wednesday morning as expected, it's important to remember that citywide plowing operations take 12 to 14 hours to complete once they begin. Therefore, if plowing begins early Wednesday morning, some areas will not be plowed out until later that evening.

In advance of what will likely be a plowing event, please choose off-street parking options for your vehicles and follow all posted parking restrictions as well. Also, do not place your trash or recycling carts in the street gutter for pickup. Trash and recycling collection will occur tomorrow as scheduled, but carts in the road create an obstruction that plow trucks must drive around. If you have placed your Christmas tree out for collection also, you may want to move it off the terrace so it does not become buried by snow and unable to be collected once pickup begin next week.

Streets Division staff will be monitoring the roads and the weather throughout the night. Additional updates will be provided as conditions change.