Division of Streets and Sidewalks

It shall be the function of the Division of Streets and Sidewalks, under the Direction of the Public Works Director and subject to the supervision of the City Manager, as follows:

• To maintain, repair and improve City streets and sidewalks in order to facilitate the safe and convenient passage of vehicles and pedestrians.
• To provide, install and maintain such signing as may  be required to advise the public of City Ordinances effecting the passage and parking of vehicles and usage of the public ways by pedestrians and vehicles.
• To provide snow removal, sanding, salting and  plowing activities during winter storm conditions.

Winter Plowing

The Public Works Department maintains 52 miles of city roads during the winter. We divide this mileage into 12 plow routes.

WHEN A STORM BEGINS:
For night time and weekend storms we rely on the Sagadahoc Communications Center to call our Foreman when road conditions deteriorate. When a snow storm begins (or freezing rain) 6 of our plow units also have sanders and we start work by first salting the major arteries (High St, Washington St, Congress Ave, Old Brunswick Rd) as well as hills and intersections. Our goal is to keep the roads as safe as possible and try to keep the snow or ice from bonding and packing to the pavement.

AS THE STORM CONTINUES:
When two to three inches of snow accumulates we call the sander trucks back in and hook up their plows along with mobilizing the rest of our plow units and then begin plowing the roads. Again, we concentrate on the main arteries followed by the side streets and our goal is to keep the travel lanes open. We will continue plowing the routes until the storm subsides and then will go back over all routes to widen the roadways out and clean up and push back at the intersections. We must widen and wing back to maintain the road width. The City has -- dead end roads which we must plow out and this adds to our plow time. It will take us 3 to 4 hours to complete a typical plow route so for intense storms a significant accumulation can develop in the roadways while we are plowing - be prepared.