CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Director of Public Services Mark Riley gave a demonstration to the media on Thursday of the city's upgraded snowplow tracker system.
The city has contracted with geospatial solutions firm ETCH to provide the system to residents during snow events this winter.
“This year we partnered with a new vendor to provide a more accurate, transparent view of snow removal operations and maintain accessibility throughout events,” City Manager Sheryl Long said in a release. “We expect it to hold up to the demands of our public.”
The snowplow tracker exists on the same website and looks similar to the initial system, released in late 2025. Last winter, it proved popular but experienced outages due to an influx of online users that its servers couldn't handle.
WATCH: Take a look at Cincinnati's upgraded snowplow tracker system
"The routes haven't changed, but the platform has," Riley said. "What this allows is for our drivers to actually just drive the route, and the GPS is keeping the data."
The website now shows two separate web pages with data for users to follow during a snow event: which streets have been serviced and what priority is my street?
The roads serviced page will display roads as they are serviced in real-time, categorized by color. The colors indicate how long it has been since the road was last serviced: in the last hour, in the last three hours, in the last six hours, in the last 12 hours, more than 12 hours ago, not treated yet or not on a snow route.
The street priority page lists which streets are planned to be treated in what order.
- Priority one: primary routes like hills, bridges and major thoroughfares
- Priority two: collector streets
- Priority three: residential streets
- Priority four: streets, alleys, highway ramps and interstates that are not part of the city snow priority route system
Riley also said the city has installed 10 additional weather stations, for a total of 20, heading into winter. The stations allow DPS crews to see the type of snow, depth of snow, road conditions and road temperatures in different areas.
"The weather stations help make data-driven decisions, and it responds to the changing conditions," Riley said. "It allows us to be proactive."
Here is where the weather stations are placed throughout Cincinnati:
- Reading Road and Seymour Avenue
- Reading Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
- Montgomery Road and Ridge Avenue
- River Road and Kibby Lane
- Sycamore Street and East Liberty Street
- Queen City Avenue and Boudinot Avenue
- Victory Parkway and E McMillan Street
- Linwood Avenue and Eastern Avenue
- Winton Road and North Bend Road
- Colerain Avenue and Kirby Avenue
Here are the ten additional weather stations crews have recently installed:
- Eighth Street and Linn Street
- Gilbert Avenue and Elsinore Avenue
- Paddock Road and California Avenue
- Montgomery Road and Dana Avenue
- Kellogg Avenue and Wilmer Avenue
- Madison Avenue (Oakley Square)
- Queen City Avenue and Harrison Avenue
- Westwood Northern Boulevard and Beekman Street
- Third Street and Vine Street
- Jerome Street and St. Paul Place (Mount Adams)
Riley said operators have been training in classrooms and on obstacle courses to sharpen skills during the warm months. The city plans to deploy 65 trucks and drivers per shift when winter weather impacts the region. If a snow event calls for additional staffing, Riley said employees with Greater Cincinnati Water Works, Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, the Department of Transportation and Engineering and other city departments will assist.
