Spokane mobilizes ‘Full-City Plow’

(The Center Square) – City of Spokane snow crews were executing on a plan known as a “Full-City Plow” Tuesday following several inches of snowfall the previous night and throughout the morning, according to a statement released earlier today by Kirstin Davis, the city’s public works communications manager.

This means crews will be working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until all streets within the city limits are cleared of snowfall.

“Crews have had plenty of experience with full city plows this year and are working the routes as efficiently as possible,” said Street Director Clint Harris, noting that personnel were also being pulled from the Water and Wastewater departments to assist with staffing during the operation.

The Full-City Plow operation consists of a comprehensive plan to reach all 2,200 lane miles of city streets and should take up to three days to complete, subject to weather conditions and continued snowfall.

“Residential areas will start being plowed once arterials, hills, and secondary routes are in good condition. Business districts will be cleared in the late night hours,” said the municipal government via the Spokane city facebook page.

Spokanites can get information on plow route ordering on the city website, as well as check the status of the plow’s progress.

Currently, the status site shows no complete routes, with all city arterials categorized as either “Working” or “Monitoring.”

It can be hard to get on the costs for this because “There are several fluctuating factors that change all the time,” said Davis to The Center Square in an email.

“All Full-City plows are not the same. Depending on the weather, crews may have to go over arterials several times to keep them clear and then return to residential plow routes,” she went on to say.

In addition, Davis mentioned the complexities of accounting for the quantity of fuel and fuel prices, the amount of sand, salt and other materials, staffing, and equipment availability. All of which, she notes, are highly variable and depend on a multitude of factors.

“It’s also a challenge to ‘draw a line’ with costs,” said Davis, adding, “For instance, do we count the parts costs and maintenance team time who needs to repair a piece of equipment that needs to get back en route as quickly as possible?”

Assuming the weather holds, crews expect to have all streets clear in around 72 hours.