‘It takes time,’ DPW head says of storm cleanup

LACONIA — Call it the Big Dig — New Hampshire-style.

Six days after a nor’easter dumped a record amount of snow across the Lakes Region public works crews in Laconia remain hard at work to get the clearing snow from city streets and sidewalks.

“It takes three to five days to get things back in shape after a normal storm,” Laconia Public Works Director Wes Anderson said. “This was not a normal storm,” he added, estimating that it could take up to 10 days before all the streets and sidewalks are in good shape.

According to unofficial totals, Laconia received 30 inches of snow during the storm which was so intense at times that snow was falling at a rate of 4 to 5 inches in an hour. Anderson said he measured 31 inches in the parking lot at the DPW building on Messer Street.

Adding to the already daunting task of plowing and removing tons of snow, is the urgent need to uncover all the hundreds of catch basins before the heavy rains that are currently predicted, starting tonight and continuing into Christmas Day.

The city has roughly 400 to 500 catch basins and storm drains throughout the city, Anderson estimated.

Clogged and snow-covered drains and catch basins can form ice dams, keeping water from flowing into the drain, and quickly resulting in flood conditions.

Public Works crews have worked every day except last Sunday to widen the travel lanes of city streets, and clear snow from on-street parking spaces and sidewalks, Anderson said.

Describing the situation Tuesday afternoon, Anderson said that crews were sent home Monday afternoon to get some rest, but then were back on the job at midnight to start removing snow downtown. Giant snow blowers were pressed into service to remove the snow banks created by earlier plowing. DPW trucks then took the snow and dumped it in large city-owned lots on South Street and on Messer Street. Even after the snow-clearing operation in downtown ended around 6:30 a.m., those crews continued working through the day on Tuesday, Anderson noted.

Crews will be on the job today, but are scheduled to be off Christmas Day, barring weather conditions that would require them to plow or treat the roads, Anderson said.

Keeping the 50 miles of sidewalks around the city open has been a challenge, he said.

Sidewalk plows were sent out as soon as the storm ended. But as street plows widened the travel lanes that often pushed snow back onto the sidewalks, making them difficult to negotiate or in some cases impassible. Snow plowing of driveways and parking lots often leaves snow piles where the sidewalks insect with driveway cuts making the sidewalks difficult, if not impossible, for pedestrians to use them safely, Anderson explained.

“It just takes time. It’s a major storm,” Anderson said, asking for the public’s understanding and patience.

In the days since the storm the snow has become denser which makes it harder — especially for the sidewalk plows — to move the snow around.

He estimated that by the time all the storm cleanup is done, sidewalks will have been plowed three times.

On top of the record-breaking snowfall, the DPW is also dealing with staffing shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As many as five people who would be assigned to snow removal have been in quarantine either because they tested positive for virus or or had been in close contact with someone who had. On Tuesday Anderson said four remained out — almost one-fourth of the department’s 17-person street crew.

Anderson said the phones at the Public Works office have been ringing “non-stop.” Come call have been from residents and businesses with questions and concerns. “But we’re also been getting calls from people thanking us for the work we do,” he said.