Snow removal is the responsibility of a the Snow Removal Team, comprised jointly of the Department of Transportation (DDOT) and Department of Public Works (DPW). They are responsible for road and bridge snow removal, including Key, Memorial and Teddy Roosevelt bridges.
During moderate storms like on January 6th, the bike lanes are plowed when the snow removal crews are doing their second round plowing and going curb to curb. The first round plowing tends to shove snow in the bike lanes, hence their clearing on the second pass. In larger snow events, light plows are deployed during the first pass to clear the lanes.
Tool Cat. Photo from @bikepedantic. |
As many folks noticed, the MBT was plowed except for the M St NE ramp. DDOT let us know that the plow blade was slightly too wide for the Tool Cat to go up it, despite the million point turn attempted by staff. A new narrower blade will be purchased.
The BAC would like to remind everyone to report currently needed ice and snow removal (and other maintenance requests) to 311, and let the snow removal team know what areas could use improvement for next time round at dpw@dc.gov.