Guidelines for Winter Weather and Roads
Additional Information
It might not seem obvious, but there are specific guidelines in place for Augusta Shores snow removal and road treatment in winter. While individual residents may have a differing philosophy when it comes to managing roads with winter precipitation, we have some self-imposed guidelines. Here are the ones currently in use.
Overall, we do not manage roads in the same manner as the county. First, we own and care for our own roads. We do not pretreat with liquids, for example. We manage plowing to only what is required. We want roads to be safe and passable, but not necessarily totally clear. All of this is because it can get VERY expensive. Not only the actual cost of plowing and materials involved, like salt, but the wear and tear on streets and lawns can be significant.
To that end, here are our guidelines:
· If predicted snow is less than two inches, we aren’t plowing. In this part of the world, it most likely will melt soon. If it doesn’t melt, it is usually part of a bigger event, and we have multiple rounds of snow / ice accumulation, hence, we will start to think about plowing.
· If we have ice predicted, we will hold off on pre-treating with salt crystals until we know for sure we will get the ice. Very often the predicted ice is not significant enough to merit spreading salt. Or, we get rain before the ice, and the salt gets washed away before it can be useful.
· Once ice starts to accumulate, we will salt the road.
· If snow accumulations merit plowing, we will try and wait until the snow event is done.
· If we are getting a lot of snow (more than 6 inches) we may have multiple plowings. This is because we use contractors with pick-up truck plows. These trucks cannot move snow like a large truck the county or state might use. This all depends on if it is fluffy or wet snow.
Some additional items related to winter weather– most of this is common sense.
· Try not to leave cars parked on the street. This makes it is harder to plow. It is understood that some leave cars on the street knowing the snow and ice will make it impossible to use your driveway.
· If you have a snow blower, please don’t blow several inches of snow on the street we just plowed. Point it somewhere else. What happens is you create a slick spot as it melts, and often creates black ice.
· Check on neighbors. We have neighbors who have the hard combination of not being as mobile as they once were and living at the end of steep driveways.
