Snow removal in Richmond – or lack thereof?

This winter, there’s been a lot of buzz that Henrico has done a better job with the snow removal than Richmond. Soon after last weekend’s storm folks going to and coming from the county reported decent commutes, most Richmond City residents and business owners had to wait for the mighty, mighty sun to take care of their snow removal needs. Ok, Richmond, so what’s the deal?

February 5, 2010; 10:07 AM • by Ross Catrow

This winter, there’s been a lot of buzz that Henrico has done a better job with the snow removal than Richmond. Soon after last weekend’s storm folks going to and coming from the county reported decent commutes, most Richmond City residents and business owners had to wait for the mighty, mighty sun to take care of their snow removal needs. Ok, Richmond, so what’s the deal?

First, it’s important to know that in every county the Virginia Department of Transporation (VDOT) handles the snow removal (and general road maintenance) — except Henrico and Arlington*. All of those roads in Chesterfield, Hanover, and the like? They’re on VDOT’s beat. Meanwhile, Henrico and Richmond each receive an annual payment from VDOT to cover road maintenance, e.g. pothole repairs, streetlight maintenance, and, yes, snow removal. It is then up to each locality to decide how to budget that money. Lucky for us, this arrangement gives us a great opportunity to compare Henrico to Richmond since they are essentially in the same boat, at least when it comes to getting assistance from the state.

Let’s look at some numbers from the December storm. These come from VDOT, the Richmond Department of Public Works**, and a spreadsheet from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management:

Number of lane miles

As you can see Henrico, larger and more populous than Richmond, has almost twice as many miles to plow. They do that with more equipment than the City does: 66 trucks/equipments compared to the City’s 52. Both the county and the City supplement their fleet with contractors — which costs money. Speaking of:

During the December storm Henrico spent $1,667,356 on removal and “protective measures” while Richmond City spent $1,495,051. The more interesting number though, is cost per mile to plow. Now, compare the cost per mile to the number of miles:

Henrico County spends around $305.77 LESS per lane mile than Richmond City. How does Henrico spend less plowing their roads while providing a (at least preceived) superior service? Could it be the number of contractors they hire? Where are the inefficiencies in Richmond’s snow removal process?

Refreshingly, Mayor Dwight Jones recently admitted their snow contingency plans weren’t the greatest and announced a laundry list of changes (see below) to the City’s removal policies — most of which will cost additional money. According to Sharon North at the Department of Public Works, last year the City spent $9,260 on contractors to help with snow removal (remember that storm in March?); this year already they’ve spent $136,929. That leaves us with a big, fat, elephant in the room asking, “Where will the money come from to support the Mayor’s new snow policies with a projected budget shortfall of 30 million dollars?”

This is what it comes down to: Henrico county is simply more efficient than the City in snow removal. Yes, they have a larger population with a larger tax base and are able to spend more money total to clean up the mess, but they spend far less PER MILE to clear their snow. We applaud the Mayor for laying down the law to get some stuff done, but we hope it will be enough to fix an apparently inefficient (and annoying for residents) system. Plus, we wouldn’t want to be in his shoes when it comes time to pay the bill.

But what about Chesterfield and Hanover (and everywhere else)?

So, the City is at a severe economic disadvantage, Henrico apparently has the cash to support an effective snow removal system, and the other surrounding counties have it handled by VDOT, right? Maybe you are saying, “Hey I live in Chesterfield/Hanover and life is a peach out here.” WELL, NOT SO FAST. While Henrico and Richmond City are responsible for maintaining their roads, they also have complete control over when and where they want to build new roads. Everyone else has to get permission from VDOT — but they get their roads handled for them. It’s a tradeoff.

Remember when we all freaked out because the rest stops were closing? Well, when Governor McDonnell reopened those rest stops, three million dollars came out of VDOT’s “emergency maintenance reserve fund.” And that’s just to keep the rest stops open until June. After June VDOT needs to find seven million additional dollars to keep the rest stops open. So even the counties not in charge of maintaing their roads are eventually going to feel a monetary impact as VDOT dollars dry up to keep the rest stops open.

How the Mayor plans to save Richmond from snowy misery

In a press release from the city, Mayor Dwight Jones pointed out that reductions in the Richmond City’s fleet in 2004-2005 undoubtedly had a negative effect on their response time to the latest storms. These fleet reductions led to the sale of 17 dump trucks and 19 four-wheel drive pick-up trucks, vehicles that were significant to the snow removal process. As a result, the city’s response time per route increased from 45 minutes to a minimum of 90 minutes. But they have a plan.

In addition to working with contractors, according to a press release from Mayor Jones’s office, the city is taking a variety of steps to improve things:

• Snow removal crews will begin plowing at a 2” accumulation, instead of the current 3” accumulation.
• The Administration will institute a policy of clearing all priority one and priority two roads within 48 hours.
• The purchase of 4 highway plows; 12 tailgate spreaders; 4 dual edge reversible plows (barrel trucks) has been authorized.
• A complete inventory of all city drivers will be conducted to determine the needs and qualifications for equipment operation.
• City inspectors will be provided with four-wheel drive pick-up trucks capable of maintaining a plow and spreader for snow removal. The City will cease purchasing sedans for inspectors, as they are not feasible for alternate use in inclement weather.
• Enter into agreements with existing City contractors and others who possess heavy equipment to augment city snow removal forces.
• Purchase plows and spreaders to be placed on loan to new or existing city contractors to facilitate snow removal.
• Make sure the pending new fleet of 23 solid waste trucks can be fitted with plows to complement the snow removal effort.
• Cross train equipment operators in the departments of Parks, Recreation and
• Community Facilities and Public Utilities to augment snow removal forces.

* This arrangement started in 1932 when the General Assembly passed the Byrd Road Act and created the Secondary Roads System, which was basically the state’s formal offer to take over the maintenance of county roads since by that point in time most people had zero cash thanks to the Great Depression. Now you might have noticed we said “county” roads. Virginia’s independent cities (Richmond included) are not included in the Secondary Roads System, based on the rationale that areas with higher population densities could and would take responsibility for maintaining their own roads. Meanwhile, Henrico County (along with Arlington) opted out of the Secondary Roads System and continues to maintain its own roads.

** The RTD ran an article on February 2nd listing the lane miles of Richmond as 5,500. We’ve confirmed our number — 1,860 — with VDOT, the Department of Public Works, and a city traffic engineer. If Richmond truly does have 5,500 lane miles then it totally changes the picture. Richmond would then simply not have the resources to spend on a vastly greater number of lane miles with its smaller tax base and budget shortfall. But, we couldn’t find “5,500” anywhere.

Big thanks to Jason Kenney and Valerie Catrow who both helped tremendously with this.

February 5, 2010 10:07 AM 14