HELENA — If you live in downtown Helena, it could be loud out on the streets over the next couple of nights, as the city is set to do snow removal.
Director of Transportation Systems David Knoepke said, “There’s no real snow storage, and when we get large amounts of snow, it starts impeding on the parking downtown, and so we try to get that removed and opened up for the businesses downtown.”
As you can see by this map, snow removal will happen on the streets marked with red lines, from W Lyndale Ave. to the intersection of Park Ave. and S. Cruse Ave. and from Park Ave. to Rodney St.
The Street Maintenance Division will start removing snow at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, working through the night and finishing Thursday at 6:00 am. They will have the same schedule for Thursday night, with the job completed by Friday morning.
Knoepke said, “This is our weather window. A lot of it’s starting to melt already, so this will just accelerate...getting everything melted downtown.”
The removal is done mainly at night for two reasons: to allow the snow to recrystallize from the cold and to not disrupt traffic.
You should be aware that while the snow removal is taking place, some roads may be intermittently closed to traffic, and if you happen to approach an area where crews are working, they ask that you be cautious.
“It is an active basically construction zone, so proceed with caution. If the contractor or our staff tells them to step back, follow what they are being told,” said Knoepke.
Once removed from the streets, the snow is dumped at the Transportation Systems pit, located near the north end of town by Super One.
If you want to contact the Street Maintenance Division about snow removal, you can do so on the My Helena app, which can be downloaded on the App Store or Google Play.
