STREETS DEPARTMENT IN 4TH DAY OF SNOW OPERATIONS MORE THAN 350 VEHICLES ON THE STREET, 120+ DEDICATED TO RESIDENTIAL STREETS SNOW EMERGENCY ENDED AT 6AMrnPHILADELPHIA – The Streets Department began the 4th day of snow operations today and ended the snow emergency at 6am this morning. Operations commenced Friday when highway maintenance crews treated City streets with a brine solution. Highway maintenance truck and sanitation trucks, augmented by other City departments and contractors, conducted salting and plowing operations throughout the weekend. Weekend work cleared snow emergency routes, secondary streets treated and most residential streets were plowed and salted.rnrnMonday’s daytime deployment started at 7 a.m. with a focus on clearing residential streets as temperatures rise. There are 230 sanitation and highway vehicles to plow and salt primary, secondary and residential streets. These vehicles will open intersections with significant snow and continue to push back snow where needed. The Streets Department is coordinating a fully staffed deployment of more than 85 vehicles dedicated to clearing residential streets. Trucks are salting and plowing residential grids. Each truck is assigned a zone and will target streets that have not been plowed or appear icy. More than 40 small snow lifters are assigned to the grids to move snow. Residential salting vehicles are deployed to support small snow lifters.rnrnThere are cases, in neighborhoods with narrow streets (e.g. South Philadelphia North Philadelphia), trucks were not able to service some streets due to parked cars blocking streets and parked cars blocking turns. Plows on residential snow vehicles are over 8′ wide. If adequate clearance is not available, the plows are unable to service these streets.rnrnOn residential streets, the first goal is simply to make streets passable. Due to the volume of snow, compaction and cold weather some residential streets are icing up. Until temperatures warm, it is unlikely that Streets crews will be able to break the heavy ice up. The Streets Department continues to encourage residents and businesses that are shoveling out to refrain from shoveling into the streets. This is illegal and significantly hampers our plowing operations.rnrnAlso, the Streets Department has begun ticketing those who have yet to clear a 30 inch path in the sidewalk in front of their building. Enforcement will first focus on blocks near schools. The Department will not ticket on blocks that have yet been treated. Enforcement could have begun as early as yesterday, 6 hours after the storm but the Department waited to give individuals more time to complete the task.rnrnIf your car was towed from a snow emergency, call 215-686-SNOW for its location. Do NOT call 911.