Snowbanks are taking over

From the towering peaks of plow mountains to bottomless depths of gaping potholes, Twin Cities motorists are struggling through a severe winter of discontent.

For the first time in nine years, Minneapolis is limiting parking to the odd-address side of residential streets, beginning Thursday. Mike Kennedy, director of transportation maintenance and repair and overseer of winter operations for Minneapolis, called the restriction "a drastic step" that should help improve traffic flow on what have been rutted, single-track streets. But it will likely create headaches for vehicle-owners in crowded neighborhoods.

The accumulating snow has also prompted the city of Oakdale to limit parking around Tartan High School, so plows will have some place to put the piles. In Eden Prairie, the city has responded to complaints from the post office by reminding residents to clear enough space from around their curbside mailboxes so mail carriers can make deliveries. Crystal is continuing to actually remove snowbanks from along some major streets, but public works director Tom Mathisen said that if there are more heavy snows, the city could run out of places to put it.

Meanwhile, a relatively early explosion of potholes has begun rattling chassis all across the metro area.

"It's been a bit extraordinary," Kennedy said.

Twin Cities seasonal snowfall is running about average to date. But it has simply continued to pile up since early December, without any significant thawing. Snow depth at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was measured at 15 inches Tuesday, the deepest it's been in nearly three years.

The Christmas Day slushfall -- followed by freezing, thawing, more freezing and more snow -- compressed neighborhood streets into icy, car-rocking tunnels, lined by sight-blocking snowbanks for much of the past six weeks.

Plowing this week pushed back the banks and removed enough of the encrusted ice that even a still-mostly-white Charles Street in St. Paul was regarded by at least one resident as miraculously transformed.

"Oh my gosh! The ruts are gone!" said Anna Appelbaum, poking her shovel at some newly exposed pavement.

But otherwise, readers who responded to a Star Tribune online query Wednesday loudly proclaimed the pothole situation to be the worst they've seen in years.

"I am not using hyperbole when I say the potholes are the worst I have ever experienced in my life," wrote Mark Carlson of Minneapolis. Several complained of deep road gouges in the Anoka and Coon Rapids area. Others cited a full rolling boil of potholes near the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Lisa Hughes said they have been causing drivers to swerve dangerously out of their lanes.

"It's really bad all over, but this area is HORRIBLE," she wrote.

Kennedy said potholes tend to appear over a short period of time. Street crews that are plowing might not be able to get to them, and winter patching tends to be temporary anyway, he said, so drivers can expect some jarring for several months. Minnesota Department of Transportation spokesman Todd Kramascz said the pothole season "will probably be one for the books."

The conditions have also pushed public works officials to admit that when they talk about plowing "curb-to-curb," they don't exactly mean that. Kennedy and Eden Prairie public works director Gene Dietz said that plowed snow can only be pushed so far against an existing snowbank before it rolls back down into the street. In Minneapolis, pushing a snowbank back farther will only bury a sidewalk, which residents are then obligated to clear. Dietz said snowbanks now encroach into Eden Prairie streets 18 to 24 inches from the curb.

"Curb-to-curb" is the standard the Minneapolis website recommends for determining when plowing is finished.

"It's a commonly used term that's actually impossible to do," Kennedy said. "You won't see it [on the website] next year."

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646

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