Snow Piles Causing Intersection Hazards

The Twin Cities metro received about 20 inches of snow this month, making it one of the snowiest months of February on record.

That snow has to go somewhere, and you can see where it ended up as you drive through the suburbs. Some piles lining city streets are taller than five feet. The massive mounds are creating a dangerous situation when they block the view of oncoming traffic at intersections.

“When we get a lot of snow like this and the banks get so high, we have an issue pushing it off to the side, so the roads essentially get narrower as the year progresses,” said Bill Bowman, Crystal Streets superintendent.  “Intersections become a problem as well, because of the snow piles. We do haul those away when we have time after we get caught up with everything else.”

But with back to back to back– snow storms–Crystal public works crews are working around the clock playing catch up. Eventually they will use front-end loaders to remove or push back high snow mounds out of intersections. And to add insult to injury the city’s two sidewalk snow removal machines recently broke down–   so it may take a while for crews to clear 30 miles of sidewalks in the city. 

“We were without both of them for a whole day,  so we’re just getting back out, focusing on the downtown area, where there’s more commuters,” explained Bowman.

Meanwhile, Crystal police are encouraging everyone to be safe as they navigate through intersections. 

Crystal