CINCINNATI — Cincinnati's new real-time snowplow tracker system went live for the first time on Monday, providing minute-by-minute updates to residents as crews prepared the road for snowfall.
The system will help snowplow drivers navigate their routes during snow events. Using a tablet, those drivers will document their progress on snow-filled roads. The new tech will document where snowplows have been and what treatments have been done to each road.
Large swaths of Cincinnati roads had been pretreated Monday evening in anticipation of the winter weather hitting the Tri-State area.
The different treatments are color-coded on the system map, allowing residents to easily find the current conditions of nearby streets. Conditions include:
- Untreated: Street has not received service yet
- Pretreatment: Driver has applied a liquid salt brine before the storm to prevent snow and ice buildup
- Salted: Driver has spread rock salt to help melt snow and ice
- Plowed: Driver has removed snow from the right-of-way
- Salted and plowed: Driver has removed snow from the right-of-way and spread rock salt to help melt snow and ice
- Problem: Crews encountered an issue preventing treatment
Cincinnati leaders implemented the system following Winter Storm Blair in January, which brought nonstop snowfall for nearly two days. In the aftermath of the storm, days went by during which residents' streets remained unplowed.
WATCH: The snowplow tracker went live today. Here's how it's worked so far
Ten weather stations were implemented throughout Cincinnati as another improvement plan for this winter season. The stations aim to allow the city to see the depth of snow, road conditions and road temperatures in different areas.
"That's pretty interesting, keeping track of where they are and how close," Helen Robinson, a Sayler Park resident, said about the snowplow tracker.
Robinson lives off a steep, winding road on the West Side, which she told us can be a problem during snowfalls. She said she was pleasantly surprised to see her road pretreated on Monday, which we discovered using the snowplow tracker.
"These hills and those turns are tricky, and if it's all snowy and everything, it's just mission impossible," Robinson said. "I'm happy that they're up here doing this, because it's nice to be first instead of last for a change."
For access to the Cincinnati snowplow tracker, click here.
