DC officials acknowledge challenge of ‘snowcrete,’ say progress has been made

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Wednesday that following Sunday’s winter storm, the city’s government agencies have been making progress in clearing the hardened snow from city streets. “I want to just really start by giving a big thank you to the many people who have been working day and night, the last five days in the lead up to this storm and responding to this storm,” Bowser said at a news conference. “Our approach, our values when we go into these responses are very simple: how do we keep people safe and how do we get open?” The mayor also made it clear that when the city reports roads are passable, that doesn’t mean cars are dug out or you can easily cross the street. “We do need people to continue to focus on their sidewalks — businesses and residents,” Bowser said. D.C. residents voiced frustrations on social media about uncleared crosswalks and unplowed streets days after the storm and questioned the city’s now response.

D.C. Public Schools is one of the few school districts in the region that will open Thursday, operating on a 2-hour delay both Thursday and Friday. Buses from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and Metro will be helping get students to school. Though Metrorail service operated on a weekend schedule Wednesday, Metro CEO and General Manager Randy Clarke said 122 of the region’s 126 bus routes are now operational, and continue to open day after day. “I’m happy to announce we will run normal, 100% weekday service out on the system,” he said. “We believe by close of business today, we actually will have transported a million customers since the storm on Sunday.” D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said the school system’s decision to close from Monday through Wednesday gave them ample time to prepare school campuses and adjacent streets for when they reopened. “We feel very confident in all the assessments that we’ve done over the past three days to ensure that our campuses are ready,” he said. Clint Osborn, the director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, called the snowstorm “exceptionally dangerous” because of the amount of snow that was covered in a “very thick layer of ice,” causing what he called “snowcrete.”

A cold weather advisory is in effect for most of the region as temperatures overnight into Thursday are expected to be in the single digits. Agency leaders reiterated how the frigid temperatures contributed to the “snowcrete,” making it difficult to traverse and remove, and impacting their response to it. Anthony Crispino, the interim director of the D.C. Department of Public Works, said clearing roads has been challenging due to extremely low temperatures and layers of ice, but crews have been working with 311 to identify service calls. “We are going to … start moving in new heavy machinery on some of the more problematic streets to break up the hard pack, or the snowcrete, and then get it out of the way so that it’s passable, with the goal of making sure that everybody can navigate the streets safely,” Crispino said. Crews have been hauling snow to the former RFK Stadium site, where a snow field is developing for storage, Crispino said. The city is also suspending fines for residents and businesses that have not cleared sidewalks within the first eight hours after a storm due to the hard, packed-down nature of the snow. D.C. Department of Transportation Director Sharon Kershbaum added that they’re hoping to soon allow cars to park in areas marked as “no parking on snow emergency.” “Getting the snow out is critical, and I think you’re going to start to see over the next few days, big changes,” Kershbaum said.

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