Complaining about how, when, and why certain streets get plowed is a local winter tradition as ingrained as the Crosstown Shootout and the Shillito elves. For those who love or hate snow, the city’s Snow Plow Tracker is a fun, interactive way to pass time during each storm.
Cincinnati’s Department of Public Services turns on the Snow Plow Tracker during full winter response operations, when city crews work around the clock. GPS devices in each truck are tracked on a city street map to display real-time locations and the types of treatments each is doing.
The Tracker color-codes streets depending on their status: Untreated, Pretreated (liquid salt brine or beet juice was applied to help prevent snow and ice from bonding to the pavement), Salted, Plowed (snow was physically pushed from the right-of-way), Salted and Plowed, and Problem (blocked access or equipment malfunction).
Plow crews work 12-hour day and night shifts during full winter response periods, with more than 50 drivers on each shift. Primary routes such as hills, bridges, major thoroughfares, and the downtown business district are serviced first.
City officials like to remind us that property owners are legally responsible for maintaining all sidewalks adjacent to their property, especially during and after snow or ice events.
[Photograph by Andrew Doench]