Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Article on History of removing snow in Boston

[cobracnvt]

I ran across this article on the history of snow removal in Boston that was posted on Boston.com this morning. It was an interesting article and thought it was worth passing on.

Of SNOWTRON and Snowzilla: How Boston Removed Snow From its Streets Throughout History - Massachusetts news - Boston.com

 

[davesl708]

It wasn't always better in the good old days.

 

[Garandman]

Boston has an unusual parking practice: they allow people who have shoveled out an on-street parking space to reserve the spot with a "space saver" for 48 hours after a storm. This is the subject of derision, sympathy, and everything in between. Many other cities have people "hold" spaces - for example the "Pittsburg Parking Chair" but no others I'm aware of do it officially.

The rationale is that Boston declares snow emergency routes during an emergency. This pushes the cars back into neighborhood streets, many of which are single lane one-way with parking on both sides. So the plows either bury one side, or alternate sides and bury both. Home owners are also required to clear 1 42" wide sidewalk in front of their houses, so you wind up having tall, narrow sidewalks and cars have to be shoveled out carefully. Example.

Boston snow statistics considerably understate the snowfall there because the official location is Logan Airport, out in the harbor surrounded by 38-40 degree sea water that moderates many storms. The average is 44-48". At the Blue Hills Observatory a few miles inland, the average seasonal snowfall is 60". Boston is the 8th snowiest metro area in the country, but if they measured it inland, we'd be 4th, after Rochester NY, Buffalo NY, and Cleveland, all of whom get major lake-effect snow.

We went through three snow throwers to move the salt-laced, wind-blown concrete that we get. First had an old Ariends, than an ST824, and finally went to an Ariens 1124 Pro, which has an 11.5hp OHV Tecumseh. That never stalls out or bogs down.

Our place in NH gets a lot more snow but it is much lighter and easier to throw.

 

[Oaktree]

Our place in NH gets a lot more snow but it is much lighter and easier to throw.

And probably a lot more place to put it too. Where DO you put it? That narrow snowbank between street and house (sidewalk too?) doesn't look like it gives much place to stack it.

 

[Garandman]

And probably a lot more place to put it too. Where DO you put it? That narrow snowbank between street and house (sidewalk too?) doesn't look like it gives much place to stack it.

It's brutal. The snow thrower helped a lot because it compresses the snow. But you still wound up with rrally high, narrow banks between the street and sidewalk.

 

[Dead Horse]

That the idiots who run Boston don't allow the snow to be dumped into the Atlantic ocean and instead have it piled up in and around the city untill it melts and flows into the harbor, is an example of classic liberal stupidity.

 

[Garandman]

That the idiots who run Boston don't allow the snow to be dumped into the Atlantic ocean and instead have it piled up in and around the city untill it melts and flows into the harbor, is an example of classic liberal stupidity.

:laughing: Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't NH vote for Obama? When I lived in Portsmouth it didn't seem that liberal.

"....do we look at the creative idea of maybe dumping some of the snow into the Boston Harbor?'' says [Liberal] state Senator Jack Hart, a Democrat from South Boston who represents 160,000 Hub residents

Snow in Boston Harbor: To Dump - Or Not To Dump? | NECN

MA and CT allow municipalities to dump snow on an emergency basis. Marblehead and USCG Boston have already done so this winter. Maine doesn't allow it, period. NH?

Public works departments in Exeter, Portsmouth, York and Hampton remove snow from urban downtown areas, which is then stored in snow dumps. Snow from neighborhoods and rural areas is plowed from roads and sidewalks and pushed aside as best as possible.

In Portsmouth, the Public Works Department set out Tuesday night and early Wednesday with the task of removing much of the fallen snow from the downtown. Tractors and trucks combined to remove the gray natural waste to a snow dump built each winter on Peirce Island between the wastewater treatment plant and the public pool. The dump is on a flat stretch of land surrounded by hay bales and snow drift fences.

"We stack it up and allow it to melt," said Steve Parkinson, Portsmouth Public Works director. "We used to use a combination of snow dumps and dumping it into the river. We stopped dumping it in the river in accordance with state regulations."

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services oversees snow-disposal policies. Eric Williams, DES senior planner, said his agency relies on regulations established by the Clean Water Act. Regulations, first and foremost, make it illegal to dump snow directly into water bodies. Inland groundwater, such as streams and brooks, is particularly sensitive to snow waste because of the high content of sodium chloride from salting procedures.

"We first published formal guidelines in 1996," Williams said.

http://t.seacoastonline.com/article/20000206/News/302069994

 

[94BULLITT]

Thanks for sharing. It was interesting to see how they dealt with snow back then.

 

[Reg]

I ran across this article on the history of snow removal in Boston that was posted on Boston.com this morning. It was an interesting article and thought it was worth passing on.

Of SNOWTRON and Snowzilla: How Boston Removed Snow From its Streets Throughout History - Massachusetts news - Boston.com

That article talks about loaded sleds being used to pack snow down.
I don't have a reference for it, but SOMEWHERE there is a museum with horse drawn snow rollers that were used to pack it down.
Having driven on hard packed snow in other countries, I would PREFER that to the senseless salting, plowing in of driveways and building of high snow banks that we have in Massachusetts now.
It wasn't THAT long ago that it was worth putting studded tires on for the winter season, hardly worth it now.

 

[Reg]

That the idiots who run Boston don't allow the snow to be dumped into the Atlantic ocean and instead have it piled up in and around the city untill it melts and flows into the harbor, is an example of classic liberal stupidity.

That has NOTHING to do with their intelligence or politics.
THINK about it for just a couple of seconds, you'll PROBABLY realize WHY.