Some Montgomery County residents reported to the county their streets weren’t plowed by 7 a.m. Wednesday, the time County Executive Ike Leggett had said all county roads would have at least one passable lane.
But overall, the county remained pleased with its snow plowing and removal efforts and felt that it had mostly fulfilled Leggett’s pledge.
“We always expected to get a few missed streets here and there. As soon as we get them, we shoot a truck their way,” county spokesperson Patrick Lacefield said.
Lacefield said the county has received “more than a couple dozen” reports of neighborhood streets that had yet to be touched by a plow by 7 a.m. Wednesday, a little more than three days after the end of a snowstorm that dumped anywhere from 18 to 39 inches of snow throughout the county.
“In some cases, what happened is part of a road is done and another part isn’t,” said Lacefield, who also said most of the missed streets were courts or cul-de-sacs.
County Council member Roger Berliner, whose district includes Bethesda, North Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Potomac, said he got 10 emails from residents who said their streets weren’t plowed by 7 a.m.
“The county executive promised at 7 [a.m.] everyone would be able to get out of their homes and go about their business. In some cases, that wasn’t particularly true,” said Berliner, who estimated that 99 percent of streets were plowed at least once by 7 a.m.
The county’s Highway Services division, which is responsible for plowing snow on 5,000 lane miles of county roads, has plow truck operators on all 218 routes and is now responding directly to missed street reports made to the county’s 311 call center.
The Highway Services division Twitter account received at least six complaints from residents who said the county road they live on hadn’t yet been plowed at all by 7 a.m. Wednesday. A Derwood resident complained that a plow accidentally knocked over her mailbox.
@MontCo_Highways 8am 1/27 NOT plowed. #DOTfails Bridgeton Drive. Map shows complete #lies #Jonas #montgomerycounty pic.twitter.com/nPYfwt9oOs
— jb (@jaybalsa) January 27, 2016
@MontCo_Highways Leighton Pl. 20901 hasn't been plowed yet. Rest of neighborhood is done, we've been calling 311 for 2 days.
— Mark Smith (@vt_mark) January 27, 2016
@MontCo_Highways its 7 am we have not seen 1 plow at Scarboro Ct in Potomac. It's shows that we are completed. pic.twitter.com/TfQtup1OCG
— Martin Weiss (@mart0212) January 27, 2016
@MontCo_Highways plows broke my mailbox and left it laying on its side.
— Lourdes Posada (@luluposada) January 27, 2016
The county’s snow operations map on Wednesday morning showed all county roads as “complete.” Lacefield said the county is only “in the third quarter” of its snow plowing operation and that crews will continue clearing entire roads throughout the rest of the week.
Throughout the week, residents have complained that the map showed plowing as “in progress” on their streets but that no plows were actually working on their streets.
Montgomery County's storm operations map, via MCDOT
Berliner said the snow operations map will be discussed at the council’s Transportation and Environment Committee when it assesses the county’s storm response. Lacefield said the county would be open to making improvements to the map, which relies on truck operators to report which streets have been plowed.
“It gives people an idea of what’s going on,” Lacefield said. “I think it’s been pretty good, but we’re not satisfied.”
County officials will be updated Wednesday morning on snow removal progress in the county’s central business districts, Lacefield said. In Bethesda, crews worked overnight Monday and Tuesday with front-end loaders and dump trucks, hauling snow plowed from streets to dump at five facilities spread throughout the county.
