Why Louisville isn’t plowing neighborhood streets

It’s the question on everyone’s mind: When is my street getting plowed?

Winter Storm Blair dumped more than 10 inches of snow on Louisville since Sunday, and an additional 5-6 inches are predicted to fall Friday, leaving icy roads and snow-crusted streets across Jefferson County.

Metro Public Works has approximately 200 employees from various departments helping clear 2,734 miles of road across Jefferson County. But miles of neighborhood roads aren’t on the city’s snow routes, leaving them unplowed or unsalted through storms.

For city streets not on a posted snow route, residents and drivers are plain out of luck.

“The snow routes that we have, they are not every street in Louisville,” Mayor Craig Greenberg said at a Thursday afternoon press conference. “… Those snow routes go back historically, and most of the time, because Mother Nature helps us out as well and we get some sun or some warming, no one really focuses on why are certain roads on the snow route and why are (some) not.

“We know that the road that you travel on is the road that’s most important, and that goes for everyone in our city. So once we can take a deep breath next week and evaluate all of our operations this week, we’re going to reevaluate all of those snow routes.”

The city temporarily expanded some snow routes and added streets based on busy Jefferson County Public School bus stops. It has also assisted with roads around the University of Louisville campus and the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center, Greenberg said. However, the city is “not able to get to every road that we want to get to, particularly some of the neighborhood roads,” he said.

“We are trying to get to as many roads as we can and will continue to do that for the foreseeable future,” he added.

For the past 10 years, Louisville’s 110 snow routes have stayed the same. Kevin Trager, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, said what streets become snow routes is largely based on size, traffic and necessity.

“The busiest roads that are not interstates are on our snow routes,” Trager said. “And then we’d have to look at things like hospitals and schools and fire stations, for example. Those all get priority.”

Trager echoed Greenberg’s comments that the city would look to reevaluate routes for the future.

“Once this is all over, we’re going to look at whether we need to change them or add to them,” Trager said.

Some unplowed roads also belong to the more than 80 independent cities within Jefferson County or homeowners associations, which are in charge of plowing their roads.

Salvador Melendez, a spokesperson for Metro Public Works, said drivers and employees have been working around the clock to clear and salt roads — working 12 hours on, 12 hours off since Sunday.

“Our Metro snow team is committed to making sure that the roads remain in safe conditions and however long that takes to keep our roads in good shape, that’s what we will do,” Melendez said.

Greenberg said the city has applied more than 30 million pounds of salt through Jefferson County, and starting Friday, it will bring in 12 crews through an emergency contract to help keep main thoroughfares clear.

“I do want to remind everyone one more time that this was a historic snowfall,” Greenberg said. “Ten inches of accumulation, the most snow we’ve seen in over 25 years.”

“Let’s hope the sun continues to shine as long as possible,” he added. “We’ll continue to keep everybody up to date on all the latest efforts.”

Find a map of the city’s snow routes at apps.lojic.org/metrosnowroutes.

Reach reporter Keely Doll at kdoll@courierjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Does Louisville plow residential streets? Check snow routes here

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