CLEVELAND — Going into Tuesday night, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is still catching up on plowing all the snow that fell early in the morning.
ODOT Spokesman Brent Kovacs told 3News they remained busy because of all the heavy snow from overnight that continued to blow and drift around. They didn't expect to be working quite this hard late into the day, but it's the timing of when the snow fell that really disrupted their plans.
"The real challenge with this snow was when it hit," said Kovacs. "It really hit in the 4 o'clock hour this morning right before morning rush hour and during morning rush hour. We like snow to hit not during rush hour, so we can have time to get it off the roads before most motorists hit the roads. And sometimes that works out, but today it did not. It was really kind of the worst case timing for the snow to start today at around 4:00, 4:30."
Kovacs said the snow was falling so hard during the morning commute that as soon as a truck driver would plow a lane, it'd be covered up again in 10 minutes.
“The main thing that I heard from the driver is around 4:30 a.m. or so, the snow just came in like a white wall," Kovac shared. "A lot of chatter on the radio is this is some of the worst, quickest snow that they've ever seen in their various careers."
On Tuesday evening, ODOT has over 250 trucks out on the roads in Northeast Ohio.
We're going to be getting some scattered snow flurries the rest of today, so the main thing is making sure the roads are safe and passable, but the big thing is we're still fighting that same three four inches of snow that we got this morning because it's blowing and drifting around," Kovacs explained. "So, we're going to be making sure nothing refreezes, plowing and salting throughout the rest of the day."
3News also checked in with the city of Cleveland for an update on their snow removal. The city has about 55 trucks out salting and plowing, and felt "fair to good" on how things have gone so far.
Director of Public Works Frank Williams' only concern was the number of newer truck drivers they currently have who still have a ways to go with how well they clean off the streets.
"I think we did okay with it, but I think we can do a little better and I will be pushing our staff to do better in each event," he said. "So, the idea was really to work on quality plowing, which is plowing from the center of the street to the curb. Getting that right on the first turn can help eliminate the number of passes needed to bring the street back into fair and passable condition. It takes reps just like with anything. We definitely have to give staff the opportunity to grow into this practice."
Trucks from ODOT and the city of Cleveland will be out the rest of the night, but how deep into Wednesday morning will depend on how the snow settles late Tuesday night.