3.6. SR 02-03-1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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i iles and piles to go before it melts Around Minneapohs, St. Paul a])d the suburbs, crews have run out of places to put the snow- and they're talking about spring flooding. By Mary Lynn Smith Star Tribune Staff Writer As weary plow crews are run- ning out of patience with repeated salvos of winter weather and out of space to put piles of accu- mulating snow, not even the dis- tant promise of spring offers much hope. Municipal engineers already are bracing for possible flooding when the meltdown finally comes. ' Until then, crews have taken adi.,antage of recent cold but dry weather to repair overworked equipment and make room for the next onslaught. And overseers of the public dollar are breathing a sigh of relief after wiping out their 1996 snow budgets. Minneapolis otiicials had to tap $2.4 million from a contingency fund by December's end, spend- ing $6.4 million for snow and ice control for 1996. "It was the single largest expenditure for snow removal," said Brian Lokkesmoe, director of operations for public works in Minneapolis. St. Paul, which budgeted for tbur snow emergencies in 1996 but had seven, spent an extra $I.15 million on top of its $3.4 mil- lion snow-removal budget. This may be the worst snow season in at least 35 years, said Dan Schact, maintenance and operations engineer for Ramsey County. "At this point, we've run out of places to put the snow," Schact said. "All we can do is try to push it up higher .... But some- times you can't." Crews in Minneapolis, St. Paul and some suburbs are using dump trucks to haul snow out of down- towns and busy commercial dis- tricts in an effort to move parking out of the driving lanes and pro- vide better access to meters. Minneapolis crews have worked nearly ever3., night since Dec. 8 removing snow from 150 metered blocks, Lokkesmoe said. Crews also are cutting doan the mounds of snow at 24,000 corners throughout the ciD; in an effort to improve pedestrian access and visibilit3,. Gary Erichson, St. Paul street maintenance engineer, said crews have cleared downtown curbs four times this winter. They've also swiped snow off some major thor- oughfares and other problem areas. But waist-high sn6wbanks lining residential streets will re- main until they melt. "The windrows there are get- ting bigger, and it's going to be a problem," Erichson said. "We'll keep trying to push the snow up, but the streets are narrowing .... We can't haul all the snow out of this town. We have no place to put it and no money to do it." Suburban crews also are push- ing snow off the curbside and rearranging piles in cul-de-sacs. Meltdown woes Some public works crews figure thev'll have another set of prob- len~s with the meltdown. "Frozen drains," said Carl Rice, Lakeville street superintendent. "That's where we see a lot of prob- lems. A lot of flooding." Crews then will be sent out to thaw the storm drains. "That will probably occur in another 30 days." It also will be about the time that forecasters begin predicting potential flooding problems. The National Weather Service is scheduled Feb. 28 to offer a gen- eral outlook for potential flooding. By mid-March, forecasters expect to estimate how much the rivers ~11 climb and where they will crest during the spring melt. On Thurs- day, Gov. Arne Carlson asked the Legislature to set aside $20 million for snow removal and flood control. Through Friday, 47.7 inches of snow had fallen at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport since Nov. 15. The airport receives an average of 50 inches during an entire season, said Gary McDevitt, a Weather Service hydrologist. More importantly, the water content of the snow is higher than usual, he said. But McDevitt says it will de- pend on much more snow falls, how quickly it warms up and whether the meltdown is accom- panied by rain. A fast warm-up coupled with rain could be disas- trous, he said.