Winter Street Operations

Living in Wenatchee, we all know how unpredictable our winter weather can be. We have experienced winters with no snow accumulation and winters with over four feet of measurable snow. As stewards of our community, we are both proactive and responsive to extreme weather conditions.

With a population of over 35,000 and nearly 275 lane miles of streets, the Street Division provides snow and ice control services to city residents. Understandably, every street cannot be cleared at the same time. However, during winter storm events, the snow removal operation runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We encourage the community to drive cautiously, avoid following closely behind, and refrain from passing snow plows.

Normal Snow Conditions

Our fleet of snow-fighting equipment is readied as soon as snow is forecast. Currently, the city has eight dump trucks, including five trucks with sanders and snow plows. Three dump trucks are outfitted with deicer tanks and snow plows. The trucks are joined by five road graders and a crew of trained equipment operators to ensure major city streets remain passable. Plows remove snow from travel lanes when snow depth, along with current and predicted temperatures, indicates the need to plow. The deicer is a pre-storm treatment used primarily on identified top-priority streets.

The city's current snow and ice control policy establishes the degree of snow control for the streets using the following prioritization:

First Priority: This includes major arterial and collector streets, considered to be the minimum network that must remain open to provide a transportation system connecting hospitals, fire stations, police stations, schools, and emergency medical services.

Second Priority: All remaining streets, such as residential and local streets.

Third Priority: Berm removal within the center lanes of the central business district, plowing of city alleys, and snow removal from the center of cul-de-sacs.

Except under very unusual conditions, all priority one, two, and three streets will remain open and maintained. When this is not possible, crews will direct efforts to priority one streets. The snow routes have been developed to ensure that, regardless of which priorities are dropped, the remaining portions still form one connected, continuous system.

For more information:

• Ordinance 2012-37 (Snow Removal)
• Snow Removal Brochure (pdf)
• Snow Plow Route Map - Shows Priority 1 and 2 Streets