City of Wisconsin Rapids Snow/Ice/Water Update

In response to concerns expressed by citizens about street conditions, the City of Wisconsin Rapids offers this update of our work, along with a summary of some of the comments we’ve received from residents.
 

• The focus at the moment is dealing with street flooding resulting from snow/ice blocked catch basins. We have been proactively clearing out catch basins over the past three days and are focusing on problem areas today.
  
  
•  All staff except mechanics are working on catch basins, and Wastewater staff is assisting, as well.

 

• The Police Department has been assisting our efforts by identifying flooded locations and getting lists to Street Department staff.

 

• The equipment being deployed for today’s activities include six end loaders, two tractor backhoes, four dump trucks, two vacuum trucks and the steamer.

 

• There are about 8,000 catch basins in the City, so despite our best efforts, a realistic expectation is that there will likely be some issues for several weeks or until the snow melts.

 
Here is a summary of citizen concerns, with our responses:

• The City has not plowed some streets after the past two snow events/the condition of local streets is awful.
  • The ride on most local streets is very rough due to snow pack and ice, but we’ve been doing the best we can, given staff levels, budget and policy.
  • We’ve been informing people that snow and ice control policy guides this activity. Connecting highways and arterial streets are given priority. Local streets are generally not plowed unless there is a snowfall of four inches or more.
  • The condition of local streets is likely to remain problematic until warm weather assists in melting the ice.
  • If we feel we can scrape some ice from local streets, we will, but the side effect is that either all of that ice ends up in the driveways because the banks are too high, or the City hauls out all of the ice and clears out every driveway. The process of scraping ice and hauling it is very slow.
  • The snow and ice control policy information can be found HERE on the City’s website
    
    
• The City is not plowing the snow all the way to the curb, and if it were, we wouldn’t have these problems.
  • The snow banks are so high that the snow discharging from the plows falls back along the streets. The only way to clear to the curbs would be to load out all of the snow as we are plowing it, which is not possible. The current difficult conditions are simply a result of unusually heavy snowfall this winter.
  • Areas where snow is pulled out and hauled away include Downtown, 8th Street, Baker Street, and around schools and churches where there are significant, regular public gatherings. We have also been hauling snow from some higher-volume intersections.

 
While staff continue patrolling streets to log problem areas, people wishing to report specific flooding locations can contact the City Garage at 715-421-8218.
 
With less than ideal conditions, City team members are doing the best we can to address problem areas. We sincerely appreciate everyone’s patience.

Joseph M. Terry, P.E.
Director of Public Works