Back-to-back winter storms has given Alexandria school children three days of vacation from school and has snarled traffic throughout the area.
The city was well prepared for the first storm, which arrived Sunday night. “We had all of our trucks and plows ready to go,” said Richard Baier, the director of Transportation and Environmental Services. “On Monday, we instituted a restriction against parking in the HOV lanes and spent a good deal of the morning towing cars to appropriate locations. We did this so that we could remove the five inches of snow that we got from the roadways without plowing cars into snowdrifts.”
By Monday evening, the arterials were clear and the secondary roads had been plowed. “Things got cancelled for Tuesday mostly because of the ice that we were expecting and because the sidewalks had not been cleared. We are asking residents to adhere to the code and clean their walks,” Baier said.
TUESDAY NIGHT, another smaller storm arrived, bringing another half inch of snow and sleet. “Fortunately, the temperatures were high enough that our brine solution and the salt were effectively melting the ice and snow that are on road surfaces,” Baier said.
Schools were closed because of the treacherous sidewalks and because parking lots were not completely plowed.
Public school students will be in the classroom on Jan. 30, which had been scheduled as a teacher work day. Also, the first day of spring break is slated to be used as a snow make-up day.