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greatvaluemeeseeks t1_j2b6o4b wrote

Reply to comment by Zbignich in Eli5: How do cities dig out of massive amounts of snow? by OutrageousAd6177

Yeah, but the snow accumulates when it stays below freezing all winter. I remember when I lived in Alaska working on an Air Force base; plows and snow removal trucks would pile up the snow all along the side of the taxi ways. By the end of winter it would be over 15 feet tall and wouldn't melt until the middle of spring. They'd also dump literal tons of salt weekly until they found that it attracted moose. There was so much salt it killed off enormous patches of grass. Don't cities that have to constantly salt the roads have to deal with the ecological effects of dumping all that salt that eventually makes it up streams and waterways? I get they plow it off the streets but if it snows for 2 or 3 days straight, most people underestimate the enormous amount of snow that generates, especially if it stays frozen; where do they store it all?

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AHumbleLibertarian t1_j2bee67 wrote

In my experience (Midwest US) the city usually piles snow up the side of streets, and eventually the city might load the snow into a dump truck for disposal in a field or parking lot.

You mention salt and its ecological consequences. Farming communities hate using salt, so they use dirt, sand, or gravel instead. The goal being that cars still get traction, but don't destroy farmland on the outskirts of town.

Usually when we see snow for 2 or 3 days straight, we clear 1 lane on the street and move onto the next before coming back and clearing anymore snow that fell. Its not all that uncommon that some areas will get plowed once per day so that plows can spend more time on the main streets.

When snow does freeze, we just drive on top of it. I would say my suburb street is burued under 4" of heavily compressed snow and ice right now. We won't see blacktop until early April for sure.

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