Charlie Breitrose
A truck plows a Watertown street.
Thursday’s snow posed quite a challenge for Watertown’s Department of Public Works, and it comes just a day after a surprise ice storm.
Public Works Superintendent Gerry Mee estimated that more than 60 vehicles are plowing and treating the streets of Watertown Thursday, with about 53 contractors supplementing 18 DPW vehicles.
Crews pretreated the roads early Thursday morning, Mee said.
“That held well until about (noon),” Mee said.
If the snowfalls come in as forecast, this will be the biggest storm for a couple years – since “Snow-mageddon.”
“This is full scale. We pre-planned yesterday,” Mee said. “Daytime storms are usually the most difficult because there is a lot of traffic on the road. Today, with the statement from the (state) government about non-essential workers asked to stay home helped.”
Wednesday morning’s ice storm threw a curveball at the DPW, however.
“It was extremely difficult and totally unpredicted,” Mee said. “It was supposed to be clear, but a band of freezing rain came through around 4:30 or 5 a.m.”
Any salt that had been on the roads had been washed away by the rain on Tuesday, so the ice stuck to the roads, Mee said.
Wednesday morning was absolutely ridiculous, the roads weren’t salted until 8:30 am. Both the roads and sidewalks were not safe for anyone. This could have been taken care of hours earlier!
The icing on Wed. caught every Mass. crew by surprise, so a little understanding on the vagaries of New England weather is in order, but the response on Thursday was outstanding.