Plows leaving snow in front of driveways have residents frustrated

Walls of plowed snow that block driveways and bury mailboxes have triggered hundreds of complaints this winter, but town highway superintendents said there's not much that can be done about them.

The piles, called snow berms or snow walls, are formed when plows clear roadways. Plows push snow away from the center of the road, forcing it to accumulate on the edges — including in front of driveways.

“That’s physics. A snowplow is a blunt instrument. It angles to one side or the other,” said Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro. “With a very large volume of snow ... you’re going to have a significant amount of snow on each side of the road.”

This winter's storms and record-setting snowfall created berms that look like retaining walls. 

Frustrated by the wall's sheer strength, Shoreham resident Kevin Wood took a blowtorch to the 4-foot-tall berm on his driveway along State Route 25A. The pile had turned to ice, so he hoped the flame would soften it enough to chip away.

“It was just too solid," he said. He tried taking a steel garden shovel to the mound, too.

The issue has frustrated residents across the region. Islip Town, for example, has received more than 2,000 snow-related complaints, including about driveway berms. 

In Huntington, residents have submitted roughly 150 complaints specifically related to snow berms this year, town spokeswoman Christine Geed told Newsday.

But town officials agree: There isn’t much to prevent snow walls from forming, especially when snowfall is heavy. It’s up to residents to clear out the pile of snow on their own driveways.

“We don’t put it in peoples’ driveway because we want to — it’s the nature of plowing," said Tom Owens, Islip's public works commissioner. "Whatever is on the right side of the plow goes off to the right ... that’s just the way it is.” 

An ‘unavoidable’ problem?

Snow walls remain a stubborn issue for Long Islanders, given the lack of plowing alternatives and the need to clear many miles of roadway as quickly as possible. In East Hampton Town, the only realistic way to avoid pushing snow to the sides is to keep it on the streets, Highway Superintendent Stephen Lynch said.

"You can't leave snow in the road. Emergency ambulances, fire — they won't be able to go down the road,” he said.

Only a few people complained in his town, but they “make a lot of noise,” Lynch said. 

Southampton Highway Superintendent Charlie McArdle said it's impractical for plows to avoid blocking driveways. Town plows have to work quickly to clear the roads.

“It can't stop at every driveway and readjust the plow. It doesn't make sense,” McArdle said. “There’s complaints all the time, but it’s a fact of life.”

Other technology

Elsewhere in the United States, devices called "gates" are sometimes used to tackle the berms. They attach to the plow and drop down to the side near driveways, temporarily preventing snow from spewing out to the side.

Placer County in California, which spans from the suburbs of Sacramento to North Lake Tahoe, has eight gates. Snow totals reach up to 500 inches per year in some of Placer's highly elevated areas.

But gates are largely useless against the 30-plus inches of snow Long Island experienced this year, Placer County staffer Samantha Davis said in an interview.

"They’re pretty much only effective if you have about 10 inches of snow," she said. "Once you have the berm gates down and there’s too much snow, the snow will just get pushed up on the sides.”

The city of Sioux Falls in South Dakota also maintains snow gates.

"Anything up to about 6 or 7 inches, maybe 8 inches, they’re very effective," said Dustin Hansen, the city's street operations manager. "It all depends on how many driveways you have along the street."

Spokane County in Washington also uses the equipment.

Jim Cotter, the county's assistant road maintenance operations manager, said Spokane began using snow gates roughly four years ago in response to residents “pushing for it.”

“We were fighting the same thing — too much snow going into their driveways and having to dig themselves out,” he said.

Cotter told Newsday that since the county began using the gates, “it’s been a lot better.” But he said he still gets resident complaints when “there’s way too much snow and it’s rolling over the top, and we leave 2-12 inches of snow.”

“But 90% of the time, the berms that are left, a car can still drive through,” he added.

In Toronto, Canada, a second fleet of specialty plows trails the main one, specifically to clean up the berms.

The city employs a fleet of 224 "driveway windrow plows" that show up about two hours after street plows move through an area. The backup fleet clears about 262,000 driveways annually, city spokeswoman Hannah Stewart said via email.

What can be done

Islip's Owens described the past 10 winters on Long Island as “a cake walk.” But residents will have to make arrangements — especially for senior relatives — for heavier snowfall if the trend continues.

“If someone doesn’t want to shovel their driveway and they’re financially able to hire someone, that’s where we should be at,” Owens said.

Homeowners should wait until plowing is finished before shoveling the end of their driveways.

In Huntington, about half the town’s berm complaints came from residents worried about their vulnerable neighbors. She described them as “help my neighbor” calls and said the town offers to help when possible.

Wood, of Shoreham, said the criticism of snowplows is "totally silly," even though he dented his car on a snow berm and is unable to reach his snowed-in mailbox

"It’s a massive amount of snow. They’re not going to stop for my little old driveway or anyone else’s," he said. "I saw all of the Facebook people crying that they’re snowed in — it’s just unrealistic, you can’t do it."