Keeping roads clear of snow in South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Snow removal on the South Shore is a massive undertaking after a normal storm, but add into the mix the holiday traffic, and heavy, wet snow, and you get a whole different experience.

Caltrans, El Dorado County Department of Transportation, and the City of South Lake Tahoe are responsible for taking care of the snow on the California side of the South Shore, hundreds of lane miles from Echo Summit to Tahoma, Meyers, and South Lake Tahoe.

Each area of the city and the county is located in a zone, and staff and equipment are assigned to each zone. Caltrans maintains the two major routes under their responsibility, US-50 (Lake Tahoe Blvd.) and SR-89 (Emerald Bay Road). Caltrans maintains 19.5 lanes miles of highway in the South Lake Tahoe city limits.

One of the biggest challenges with snow removal operations has been the numerous cars abandoned on roads. In most instances, the plows cannot get around an abandoned vehicle and their operations stop until the car is removed. El Dorado County has had 16 vehicles towed between Saturday and Wednesday this week alone. Between Dec. 28 and Jan. 4, the City towed seven vehicles and issued 104 citations to those parking along the street or abandoning cars during snow operations which are not allowed.

Other things that slow down operations are chains left in the snow, along with snow stakes and other metal debris. Those items will be brought into the snow blower, and get caught in the machinery, forcing the blower to stop and receive maintenance.

In El Dorado County's equipment yard in Meyers, there are six loader plows, five motor graders, two sand trucks, one 10-wheel brine truck, one pickup brine truck, four loaders mount rotary snow blowers, and four mountain truck snow blowers to handle ten zones and over 120 lane miles of roads spread out through the county. This year they have rented some of their equipment which has been easier for the transportation department as the rental company takes care of any needed repairs.

During storms, there are 24/7 snow operations with two 12-hour shifts running in almost every zone of the county (staffing is full on the day shift, short one person on the night shift). Area 10 in Tahoma gets one 12+ hour shift.

They started updating the public about their daily schedule on its Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/eldoradocountyroads. The City also provides updates all day on its Facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/CityofSLT/.

The City of South Lake Tahoe operates snow removal with 8 plows or 1 plow in each of the 8 plow zones, 1 sander, and 4 blowers. They cover 255 lane miles in the city (a lane mile is both sides of a street). The City also plows 14.5 miles of paved bike lanes.

The City's snow removal team is fully staffed.

They have published a Snow and Ice Removal Plan. In this plan their outline their response to winter storms, and those storms are divided into five levels of intensity and operational significance.

During a storm, the first priority for the City and County is to get the arterial lanes cleared as they are links across several neighborhoods and have the most travelers.

The following roadways are classified as arterial in the City:
- Lake Tahoe Blvd. – City Limits to Hwy 89/50
- Al Tahoe Blvd. – Pioneer Trail to Hwy 50
- Heavenly Village Way – Hwy 50 to Montreal Road
- Park Avenue – Pine Blvd to Hwy 50
- Pine Blvd. – Park Ave. to Stateline Ave.
- Pioneer Trail – City limits to Hwy 50
- Saddle Road – Wildwood Rd. to Keller Rd.
- Ski Run Blvd. – Saddle Rd. to Hwy 50
- Wildwood Ave – Saddle Rd to Needle Peak Rd.

The "mains" in the county are:
- Barbara Avenue
- Black Bart Avenue
- Cold Creek Trail
- Pioneer Trail from Al Tahoe Blvd. to US-50 in Meyers
- Elks Club
- Mandan Avenue
- Apache Avenue
- Lake Tahoe Blvd. from City Limits to North Upper Truckee
- Sawmill Road
- North Upper Truckee Road
- South Upper Truckee Road
- Tahoe Mountain Road

The County will start plowing all zones with 3" of snow so traffic is able to flow, then add the blowers when plowing is done. They always use gates, even if snow is heavy. "We attempt to drop gates at every driveway," said Matt Moody of El Dorado County Transportation. He said sometimes snow gets through underneath if the blades cannot touch the street. The City doesn't drop gates at 36" of snow or above, since they say snow will flow over the top and not make a difference.

Once the arterials and main roads are cleared, then operations can move into neighborhood streets. Many residents may hear a snowplow in their area, but that could just be the arterial or main streets being plowed. Based on the amount of snow, how things are plowed is laid out in the City's Snow Plan.

Once plows get to streets, and there is no longer storage capacity alongside the road, snow removal operations bring in the blowers in order to widen and increase storage. While this is necessary, it is also time-consuming as the blowers operate at a slower rate. Both the City and the County are asking for the public to be patient as crews address the feet of snow that fell, and with more falling and coming.

When Caltrans collects the snow off the highway it gets moved to the snow dump at the end of Sierra Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe. Caltrans has 21 contracted trucks and 14 Caltrans trucks on the South Shore to dump the collected snow.

For El Dorado County, if you would like to report a problem or have a question concerning a road issue, contact them at 530-642-4909, or road.maintenance@edcgov.us.