For the past few years, Eau Claire has been subject to an anomaly for its winter season – a lack of snow.
With the most recent weather conditions providing the Eau Claire community with an abundance of snow, drivers face many problems, especially when people aren’t used to the conditions, said Tom Beekman, Wisconsin Department of Transportation District 6 systems planning and operations chief.
| “People have to learn to drive slow and take it easy.” –Tom Beekman Operations Chief, District 6 |
“When we’ve had these recent snowfalls, it has taken people some time to react to driving conditions,” he said. “People have to learn to drive slow and take it easy.”
With these driving hazards, the state, city and UW-Eau Claire use their own methods to deal with the conditions.
Gregg Brandrup, street maintenance manager for Eau Claire, said the city is responsible for 29 residential plow areas within the community.
Of the 29 plow areas, 15 main streets are the city’s first priority, Brandrup said. This includes Water Street and the streets downtown.
“Anything over two inches, we’ll plow and salt over,” Brandrup said. “We’ll keep (plowing) until it stops snowing.”
While these efforts are designed to make driving conditions better, complaints still arise. Brandrup said he tries to answer them the best he can.
Due to budget cuts, the city has between $1 million to $2 million less to spend on snow maintenance than last year. As a result, it has fewer staff members than last year, Brandrup said, which is why it takes longer to get around to all the roads effectively.
While the city takes care of the main streets, it has no association with state highways, such as Clairemont Avenue, or any campus roads.
Highways are classified by the number of lanes and the volume of traffic on them, Beekman said.
“During a snow event … the plowing won’t stop,” he said.
While snow can be a problem, Beekman said it’s not as severe as ice storms, which make it harder to prevent accidents due to road conditions.
Beekman said there were four accidents in Eau Claire County on Jan. 23, during the year’s first snowstorm.
The statewide maintenance allocation is $165 million, $100 million of which is set aside for counties to do maintenance. District 6, which includes Eau Claire County, has a budget of $9.8 million, 40 percent of which is spent on winter services.
If the current batch of snowstorms stop, the city will be fine, Beekman said. If they don’t, other problems will arise.
“If we have more storms like the ones we’ve been having, we’ll be in serious financial trouble,” Beekman said.
On campus, Facilities Planning and Management handles all winter maintenance. Campus safety is always the first priority, grounds supervisor Randy Palmer said.
Because of this priority, he said the paths most often used by students and faculty are dealt with first. This includes the hill and the footbridge. After that, maintenance crews work to clear major walkways, such as the Campus Mall and Garfield Avenue.
“We try to prioritize the greatest safety first, then go from there,” Palmer said.
Freshman Aaron Stromberg said the campus does a good job allowing students to walk from upper to lower campus.
Junior Carolyn Roach agreed with the campus situation, but said she doesn’t like traversing city roads.
“(The roads) are very slippery,” Roach said. “It doesn’t seem like they’ve been plowing many of the roads.”
Because the city staff is small, it’s difficult to keep roads clear in the face of continuous snow, Brandrup said.
“Major parts of the economy depend on major stuff being open,” Beekman said. “We just make decisions and try to keep (things) going.”
