In the days after this week’s snow, Virginia’s Department of Transportation deployed crews to make sure highways, primary and high volume secondary streets were completely cleared.
For those areas, the goal is for drivers to be able to see the bare pavement and clear the roads from curb to curb, according to Ellen Kamilakis, a VDOT spokeswoman.
But some residents have expressed frustration that residential streets in their neighborhoods are icy or still covered with snow.
For what the state agency considers its subdivision streets, there’s a different standard. Those streets just have to be considered “passable,” which VDOT defines as an 8- to 10-foot-wide vehicle path that an emergency vehicle can comfortably drive on. They’re unlikely to be clean from “curb to curb” and drivers are unlikely to be able to see pavement.
It may be full of snow, Kamilakis said, but “it is absolutely drive-able with caution.”
VDOT covers four counties in Northern Virginia, and doesn’t maintain secondary roads in Arlington, but covers them everywhere else. There are over 17,000 subdivision streets, “and we have verified that all of them are passable,” Kamilakis said.
Some residents are critical of that standard, though.
Claire Stephenson said the roads are “just not good at all” in her Northern Virginia neighborhood, and that the passable standard “just doesn’t work. That’s sort of ridiculous.”
Bonita Bell, meanwhile, described the roads around her home as “a little iffy.”
“It’s drive-able, but it’s not clear,” Bell said. “We could probably do a little bit better, especially since more is coming on Saturday.”
Once VDOT determines the streets are passable, crews go through work list items, which are aimed at helping people who call into the customer service center asking for a specific area to be treated.
“The temperatures have really been the thing that has worked against us, or hasn’t really been on our side,” Kamilakis said. “Because it’s not uncommon for us to have a snowstorm where it snows, the next day, it’s 40 degrees and sunny, and everything melts off. I think people are used to that rhythm when it comes to snow.”
Roads considered passable, Kamilakis said, will have a path that one car can drive through. The agency has workers who specifically drive around making sure the roads meet that definition.
“We get that people don’t necessarily like the way that the roads look at this point, but they are absolutely passable, and have been verified as such,” Kamilakis said.
VDOT has had crews working 24/7 since last Saturday, and the agency is going to continue “in that posture through this storm as well,” Kamilakis said, alluding to the possible snow arriving in the D.C. region this weekend.
Kathleen Mallard said, based on VDOT’s definition of passable, in her neighborhood, “I guess they are complying with that policy.”
John Juliano, who lives near the McLean Community Center, said he knew about the passable standard, and “in my area, they’ve always done a good job.”
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