Photo: Thanks for not shoveling the sidewalk, asshole. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.
The snow dumped by this weekend’s gangbuster storm is off the main roadways, though residential streets could use a touch-up, the county’s transportation department reported Tuesday.
The area’s emergency routes, bus routes, and main roadways were passable after Saturday’s storm unleashed 21 inches of powder in Silver Spring, the transportation department announced in a press release. By Monday night, Colesville Road, Georgia Avenue and East-West Highway in downtown Silver Spring were back in business, though rush-hour traffic was lighter than usual.
However, residential streets were still in need of a snow plow’s scrape despite an initial visit. The transportation department’s goal was “to make every residential street passable — not to necessarily clear them to bare pavement,” the press statement read. The department will continue to plow and spread “abrasives” onto those streets until conditions improve, it added.
Private roadways, parking lots and some sidewalks were still works in progress on Monday afternoon. At The Blairs apartment complex, maintenance crews fought to keep snow melt from refreezing on parking-lot asphalt. Meanwhile, mini-bulldozers shifted massive snow piles on the top level of a parking garage there.
On Colesville Road at East-West Highway, a sidewalk next to an Exxon gas station was covered in at least six inches of slush and compacted snow during Monday’s evening rush hour. By midnight, it appeared that a narrow path had been carved out with a shovel. However, the gas station’s driveway was still a slushy mess.
According to the county, private property owners are responsible for clearing adjacent public sidewalks within 24 hours of a snow storm’s end. The shoveled path must be wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair. To report an unshoveled sidewalk, hit the county’s online complaint form.
Residents can report roads that need immediate attention via the transportation department’s online complaint form or by phone at (240) 777-6000.
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Thanks for providing the online complaint form. We’ve an apartment complex as a neighbor that for some reason always fails to clear the sidewalk adjacent to their property which connects ours. As this sidewalk is our only connection to the outside world (on foot), it royally pisses me off. We go through the bother of clearing the roughly 60 feet of sidewalk in front of our place so that its residents can get to the bus stop, the least they can do is clear the sidewalk in front of theirs so that we can walk to the store.
Are you talking about Silver Spring House, too?!
I just had my lengthiest walk about town since the snow hit, and the sidewalk situation really is pretty bad. There are some spots where the plows piled the snow up on the corners, thus blocking the ramps/crosswalks… Nice to help out the carfolk, I guess, but really does a number on ped safety…
How do the rules work for situations like at the Texaco — http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2mzxh91&s=6 — where there was shoveling but the ground subsidence under the driveway makes a puddle that would be impossible for many wheelchairs (*and* the wheelchair curbcuts by their sign on the corner are not shoveled at all)?
I think most of the jobs downtown on sidewalks of houses and businesses has been pretty good. Unfortunately, just one bad neighbor can ruin it for everybody else. The people who shovel their driveway and steps and then neglect their sidewalk drives me nuts.
Another thing, this snow isn’t going to melt in the very near future. Please, shovel the whole sidewalk and not just a path where only one person can squeeze through at a time.
Please, shovel out the bus stops, too! We did this in my ‘hood.
One thing to beware of is “black ice”, even on the sidewalk. The sloped brick walk outside NOAA — which is a slippery mess even on rainy days — sucked to no end last night. It’s called rock salt, people.
Regarding the puddle next to the Texaco station, I’d report that to the county. The driveway surface won’t be fixed anytime soon, but perhaps the county can persuade Texaco to find another fix.
I’m all for cleared sidewalks, but we have to be reasonable about what is possible.
Part of the problem in clearing sidewalks is that the snow plows push a full street full of snow into piles along the side of the street, which is usually right on top of the sidewalk. It seems unreasonable to expect property owners to fully clear the sidewalks when an iceberg has been pushed onto them. Digging out that compressed snow turned to ice is very difficult. And then there is the problem of where to put it. If a building is adjacent to the sidewalk, about the only thing you can do is throw it back into the street!
Oh boy…walking on the slippery red sidewalk bricks should be fuuuuuun tonight when the temperature dips below the freezing point. I wonder how many people are going to wipe out on the brick sidewalk in front of FedEx Kinkos and the Einstein/Starbucks location.
Tip: Try to walk on concrete sidewalks since the you get slightly better traction with the black ice.
The complaint form is overheating from my usage of it – certain businesses and multi-family dwellings should be put in stocks and us SS peds be allowed to pelt them with ice-balls until they repent their evil ways.
You can be sure I have a LONG memory and will not frequent any businesses who do not care about my safe passage.
The worst offender of all though is the County itsekf -WHEN will they clear even a miniscule oath over Burlington Ave bridge? Or how about the “soon-to-be-new-SS library” corner at Wayne & Fenton?
Weather like this, is another reminder that a pedestrian bridge (dry and covered) to the new Silver Spring Library, will provide safe passage for all, no matter what age or ability.
Editor’s note: Margarete Levy is associated with the Silver Spring library. — JD (Dec 23, 2009)
Kathy – Agreed about the corner of Wayne & Fenton, I was shocked at how awful that spot was! At first I thought, ‘oh, empty property, guess some bank is too lazy to send out people to maintain it…’ then I remembered what the lot was! Rather sickening, really.
The sidewalk just outside of Bullis Park is also untouched… Haven’t been to any of the other parks w/ sidewalks outside them, but that’s rather shameful as well… Not like Cedar St is heavy on traffic or anything, but it still sucks.
Woodside Park Bob sez:”It seems unreasonable to expect property owners to fully clear the sidewalks when an iceberg has been pushed onto them. Digging out that compressed snow turned to ice is very difficult.” Well, WPB, it seems entirely reasonable to me. There are scads of unemployed and underemployed people around there, many of them able-bodied. Surely they could be organized into teams with picks and shovels, with an occasional snowblower. That is where some of the transportation money should be going, saved up and used for times like this. And some of “icebergs” could be hauled away and dumped into the Potomac. It’s just another case of failing to maintain what we have already built, use and depend upon NOW.
Hey, think about our rivers, streams, bays and oceans and then use ice melt accordingly
Good point, Chip. I just use ordinary sand.
The gravelly stuff I have encountered in previous years in DTSS seems like some kind of waste product, very sharp edges. It hurts if it gets into shoes, and is awful if blown into eyes. Sand is best. It does’t hurt like that other stuff, it doesn’t add chemicals to runoff, and it stays to add friction of if the area freezes over again.
More than a week after the storm ended, I was driving up Colesville Road north of the Beltway today and noticed that the sidewalk is completely impassable leading up to the Trader Joe’s. Didn’t get a specific address to report, but it’s really an embarrassment to the county how bad the sidewalks are, including several bus stops.