Cleanup after Wednesday night’s four inch snowfall in Lincoln required a quick change of plans.  City Street officials were expecting one to two inches, and had crews scheduled in to begin pre-treating streets at midnight.  Instead, they found out around 10:30 p.m. that the band of heaviest snow was tightening, and would focus on a narrow area of Eastern Nebraska that included Lincoln.

“We started getting some indications that maybe the accumulations were starting to tick up” said City Street Maintenance Supervisor Tim Byrne.  “With that additional information, we made the decision to activate additional resources.”

Byrne said the heaviest snow began shortly after midnight, and 60 plows were on the streets by 2 a.m.

Many drivers called the KFOR newsroom during the morning drive period Thursday complaining that many arterials hadn’t been plowed yet.  Byrne said the arterials had been plowed by around 8 a.m., adding that the timing was unfortunate, with a midnight start, but “plowing those 1,200 miles of Lincoln streets takes a few hours.”

Byrne said after the arterials were completed, plows began switching to residential areas.  The odd-even residential parking ban was not declared in this storm, Byrne said, because of the temperature, sunshine, and relatively rapid melting.  He added, however, that residents can insure that crews can do a better job in their neighborhood if their vehicles are off the streets until plowing is complete.

The City’s Snow Emergency, banning parking on all arterials, snow, bus and school routes, ended at 5 p.m. Thursday.