CINCINNATI — Say goodbye to paper maps and outdated trackers. Cincinnati officials announced new updates to the city's winter operations this year, including new technology that will create a real-time snowplow tracker for residents to follow.
In January, a massive winter storm buried the region in nearly a foot of snow. Communications between city leaders obtained by WCPO 9 News revealed issues with equipment breakdowns, outdated technology and overwhelmed workers.
The city has since hired a new director for the Department of Public Service, Mark Riley, and put more money into technology and fleet upgrades.
"Last year was not good enough — the administration, the council and I agree on that," Pureval said. "We have made significant investments in order to make sure that we improve our services to the extent we get another historic snowfall, we'll be ready."
Watch the entire press conference here:
Mayor Aftab Pureval on Thursday announced the new tech will document where snowplows have been and what treatments have been done to each road.
Additionally, drivers will no longer have to use paper maps to find the roads they need to cover. Pureval said each truck will be equipped with tablets that show the drivers which roads are on their route.
City Manager Sheryl Long said the tablets will also allow drivers to report road conditions like disabled vehicles or construction.
Outside of technology, Riley announced DPS will be implementing weather stations throughout the city to see the depth of snow, road conditions and road temperatures in different areas. They'll also be using a new de-icing product, the same product used by the Ohio Department of Transportation, to help treat roads.
"We have proactively prepared DPS to provide the expected services to address all of the weather conditions throughout the city," Riley said.
Riley said they're currently going through all routes to ensure they do not miss any roads like last winter. We previously covered the plethora of unplowed streets in places like Mount Adams, Northside and more during the historic snow.
Another problem highlighted in city communications earlier this year was training and help. Many city drivers retired during the pandemic, meaning an influx of inexperienced drivers worked during the recent snowstorm. Additionally, Metropolitan Sewer District workers who help during storms did not volunteer.
Pureval said the city has worked on training both workers and volunteers on the technology and routes.
Because of how tough the storm was this January, the city said 20 of its 80 trucks were forced out of commission for repairs or replacements. Pureval said they've done more prework on the fleet to ensure it can stand the weather, and they've equipped other city vehicles with plows to help bolster the fleet.
