ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — Ann Arbor city officials are urging residents to avoid parking on the street, if possible, so that road crews can continue to plow streets and bike lanes.
To help, the Downtown Development Authority is offering free parking to all Ann Arbor residents at their Ann/Ashley structure through the end of Saturday, February 5, 2022. You will need to provide the attendant with your Ann Arbor address when exiting the parking structure.
The City of Ann Arbor has 50 people working a 24-hour shift to keep up with the snow.
Public Works Manager Molly Maciejewski said the city has 50 employees working a 24-hour shift.
"We pull in workers that usually work in other areas like water maintenance and stormwater maintenance, even forestry to assist with snowplow efforts," she said.
Maciejewski said their first focus is on primary (major) roads.
"And then once the snow stops, we move into local roads. If we have an opportunity ahead of that, we will. It just really depends on when the snow falls stops," she said.
On Zeeb Road in Scio Township, crews with the Washtenaw County Road Commission also began the day early with 5,000 tons of salt.
Communications Manager Emily Kizer told 7 Action News that they have different priority levels for different types of roads.
"Rght now, we are operating really on our primary routes, so that would be our paved primary roads," said Kizer, adding that the first priority also includes freeways.
The Washtenaw County Road Commission is contracted with the Michigan Department of Transportation to plow and salt 600 freeway lane miles for the state.
"While it is snowing, we will be working on those routes exclusively. Once the snow stops and we're able to get those routes in pretty good shape, then we'll start to move to our unpaved roads and to our subdivision and neighborhood streets which make up a big chunk of our system," Kizer said. "But we have to prioritize the streets that have more traffic on them first."
