Montgomery County Snow Clearing Leader Defends Blizzard Work

The official in charge of Montgomery County's snow removal faced residents who still harbor strong memories of being stuck indoors for days and weeks due to unplowed streets during last year's record snowfalls.

Last night, Keith Compton, Montgomery County chief of highway services, attempted to explain why some streets are cleared of snow swiftly while others are impassable for days.

About 30 people attended the snow removal forum at the , which was organized by Councilmember Nancy Navarro.

When residents complained that they were stranded in their homes for days, Compton explained how and why primary streets are cleared first, then secondary streets, and finally residential streets.

The county aims to have roads cleared to within a quarter-mile of any residence, he said. If a county resident needs fire, ambulance or police assistance, emergency responders have to be able to reach that home.

He acknowledged that many people were upset during the storms last year when 80,000 customers were in the dark without heat.

But Compton noted there were no deaths as a result of the heavy snows on roads, and "we're very proud of that."

Other items that Compton discussed during the meeting:

• The reason the outages lasted for days was not because roads traveled by Pepco crews were blocked by snow. Compton said he has made a deal with the power company, that anywhere its crews are needed, the county will clear a path during any major storm.
• The state of New York has faster and better snow clearance performance, such as beginning to plow just when snow begins to accumulate, but he said the Empire State crews have more equipment to work with, proportionately, than Montgomery County.
• It is worth the high cost Montgomery County incurs in clearing snow, compared to the economic impact of leaving roads and streets impassible.
• There is no way to plan for removing four feet of snow dumped on the county over five days. The county has 5,085 lane miles of roads and streets to clear. Clearing two feet of snow from county roads requires 60 hours after snowfall ceases.
• In a big storm, a majority of road clearing crew members are employees of private contractors, rather than regular county employees.
• The county government will have a public map, Google-style, to show each resident the progress, or lack thereof, on clearing roads within a quarter-mile of the resident.  The system also will permit residents to pull up any of I-95 traffic cameras, view Metro stations and more. This should be ready to go live by Dec. 15. It will be able to handle 15,000 calls without crashing.
• Salt is a savior: de-icing cuts crash frequency some 88 percent. The cost of putting down de-icing material pays for itself within minutes, just from car crashes that don't occur.
• When salt is dumped on clear pavement before a storm, it isn't wasted. Rather, the salt helps to prevent the surface from becoming dangerously icy once precipitation finally begins.
• The county has sensors embedded in roadway pavement across the county, to warn when pavement becomes colder than 32 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that rain will freeze on roads.
• The county will clear a path to a resident in the event of a medical emergency, such as a woman who would have died without dialysis, or a physician who was scheduled to perform open heart surgery. But last year, one caller pulled a scam, saying a woman was about to give birth, when in fact the woman wasn't pregnant.