The snow hasn\u2019t yet started to fall, but when it does, the Alaska Department of Transportation has a new tool to tell you what to expect on the roads.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s DOT budget is about $34 million lower than last year\u2019s, and that will have an effect on snow removal. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor this winter, what\u2019s really going to strap our maintenance resources is that we really had to cut overtime,\u201d said DOT spokesman Jeremy Woodrow.<\/p>\n
At dot.alaska.gov\/stwdmno\/wintermap\/index.shtml, DOT has created a priority map that breaks down how quickly roads will be cleared after a winter storm.<\/p>\n
In Juneau, Egan Drive is the state\u2019s top priority \u2014 Priority 1 \u2014 and once that thoroughfare is cleared, the map shows which roads are next in line for plowing.<\/p>\n
On the map, that\u2019s South Douglas Highway and Mendenhall Loop Road. <\/p>\n
Fritz Cove Road and North Douglas Highway are what\u2019s called Priority 3 roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely, if you live out on North Douglas and it\u2019s dumping snow, you might not see North Douglas plowed until Egan is cleared,\u201d Woodrow said.<\/p>\n
The plowing schedule will depend on a variety of factors, including how thick the snowfall is, so the DOT\u2019s map shouldn\u2019t be taken as absolute gospel.<\/p>\n
According to DOT-supplied figures, Juneau\u2019s winter maintenance staff includes 12 plow operators and one foreman. Together, that crew is responsible for 369.75 \u201clane miles\u201d of roadway.<\/p>\n
In a snowstorm, DOT would have crews working from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. There would be a morning crew and an evening crew with some overlap in the afternoons. Weekends would see fewer plow drivers but the same hours of operation.<\/p>\n
The National Climate Prediction Center forecasts an above-average chance for Juneau to see a winter that is warmer and wetter than normal, something that could prevent the worst effects of DOT\u2019s budget cuts.<\/p>\n
The worse the snow, the more effects Juneauites will see. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s a dusting, people won\u2019t even notice,\u201d Woodrow said. \u201cBut if it\u2019s a dumping … it will be noticeable. And if it\u2019s coming down for several days on end, it\u2019s going to be very noticeable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The snow hasn\u2019t yet started to fall, but when it does, the Alaska Department of Transportation has a new tool to tell you what to expect on the roads. This year\u2019s DOT budget is about $34 million lower than last year\u2019s, and that will have an effect on snow removal. \u201cFor this winter, what\u2019s really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5098"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}