The City of Suffolk has over 1,620 lane miles of primary,
secondary and local roadways. The City’s main plow/salt routes are maintained
by upwards of 20 vehicles working around the clock.
During and immediately following the snow event, crews are
working to keep vital primary routes open for emergency traffic. After the
primary routes are sufficiently treated, crews will expand their work to
secondary and then to tertiary routes. As snow melts and traffic increases,
this often requires going back to maintain areas previously cleared. All of
this work, over such a large area, requires a significant amount of time.
Residential streets are usually not treated, as the time
that it takes to get the primary, secondary and tertiary routes completed this allows
for melting in the residential areas to take place. Additionally, neighborhood
streets are narrow and often have cars parked in the street making it difficult
to clear snow and increasing the chance of an accident with the plow.