Mayor Rita Ali voiced some reservations about a change to Peoria’s annual snow removal plan that was presented at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Deputy Director of Public Works Sie Maroon explained the city’s previous 10-year intergovernmental agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation [IDOT] has expired and was not renewed for financial reasons.
That expired agreement gave Peoria the ability to handle snow removal on Illinois state routes within city limits, but now that duty reverts back to IDOT.
“So they will be maintaining the traveling lanes and we will be maintaining the parking and the bike lanes. So there’s going to be shared responsibility there,” said Maroon. “Now, the complicating thing about that is timing, and being that this is the first time we’ve had to deal with this, it’s going to be trial and error until we can figure out the best process here.”
Maroon noted that IDOT typically prioritizes clearing interstate highways, such as I-74 and I-474, ahead of city streets. Some of the impacted local roads include Adams Street, Western Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, Howett Street, and Knoxville Avenue.
“Even though I’m optimistic, I do have some concerns with the shared responsibilities this new plan,” said Ali.
“Those are primary streets that now, the city, in the past, has assumed responsibility for snow removal, but now this coming winter IDOT is going to have responsibility for that snow removal. I know that we’ve maintained high standards in terms of prioritizing, rotating. Do we know what IDOT’s process is?”
Maroon said a major priority for his department will be addressing arterial roads with hills, and to make sure ambulances, fire trucks and police vehicles will be able to get through.
“If they can’t get to it, we’re not going to turn our heads the other way. We can’t turn our heads the other way,” said Maroon. “We’re going to work with them to get it figured out, how the timing of it’s going to work. But the fact of the matter is that we still have to make sure that these high visibility areas are being maintained.”
Ali said holding IDOT accountable and making sure residents are informed about the process will be critical.
“I can hear the complaints now that, Lincoln, Howett, Western, ‘Why are we being ignored?’ Knoxville, a major artery in our in our city, ‘Why are we being ignored?’ Right? There has to be a strong backup plan, and there has to be high standards for these areas,” she said.
During the 25-minute presentation and discussion, Maroon pointed out the department increased the number of snow routes by two to 23. There are four designated hill routes and eight tandem plow routes.
He said operations will be on call 24 hours a day, running two 12-hour shifts when snow forecasts call for 2 or more inches of accumulation. High-traffic primary streets and those adjacent to schools and medical facilities are the top priority, with residential streets and alleyways.
The plan calls for citywide arterial snow removal within 24 hours after snowfall of 2-6 inches, with the timeframe expanded to 36 hours for more than 6 inches.
“Our goal is to maintain safe travel routes during the winter season and to restore mobility for the traveling public within a reasonable time frame following winter storm conditions,” said Maroon.
