Plowing Snow from Trails

 

Photo credit: Tom Cherry, Normal Parks Maintenance Supervisor

Does your community remove the snow from your trails? If so, you are in a lucky minority. Many cyclists who use paved paths will be waiting for the warm weather to thaw the mixture of snow and trampled down ice.

The town of Normal decided, in September, to begin removing the snow from some of the area trails. “We have been receiving a lot of requests from trail users who use the trails in the winter months,” said Garry Little, director of parks and recreation.

Normal has about 13 miles of trail and just began clearing the snow from approximately five miles of the Constitution Trail, Little said. “We did trail counts at various locations to find out which segments of the trails were the most used for recreation and for access to schools,” he said. “Some portions of the trail are used as sidewalks to get to schools – elementary, high school and also Illinois State University – and, also, for people getting to places of employment, either uptown Normal or the University.”

The snow will not be removed from the trails until plowing of the streets has been completed and only during regular work hours, Little said. With a small amount of snow, a sweeper will usually be used. “We already sweep the trail a couple times a week,” he said.

Some other communities that remove snow from all or some of the trails include Cary, Chicago, Decatur, Oswego, Springfield and Urbana. The University of Illinois also removes snow from its paths. Madison County Transit will remove snow from trails in rare instances. “MCT does not remove snow from its bikeways, unless the bikeways are in the immediate area of the Park and Ride lots. Although most of our urban trails are asphalt, some of the rural trails are limestone screenings. Plowing limestone trails would damage or remove the surface of the trails,” managing director Jerry Kane said.

“Residents in the community use the trails for winter recreation and enjoyment that may include walking, running, and cross country skiing. It is important to us to maintain these resources for our residents,” said Katie Hughes of the Cary Park District, which removes the snow on the entire 5.5 miles of trails it maintains. “The type of equipment we use depends on how much is accumulated during a snowfall event. The vehicles and equipment in our fleet that are used to plow include a tractor with a snow blower, a John Deere gator with a plow, a skid steer with a plow, and a truck with a v-plow,” she said.

The Springfield Park District removes the snow from all of the district’s trails “because we still have people that walk on them and ride their bikes on them,” said Jason Graham, assistant superintendent of park maintenance for the Springfield Park District. The trails are wide enough to use a truck with a plow attached and the snow is removed from the trails once the park district in finished removing snow from the district’s parking lots, Graham said.

The Chicago Park District removes snow on trails they manage, such as the Major Taylor Trail and the Lakefront Trail, spokesperson Zvez Kubat said. “We remove the snow as often as possible just because there are so many people that use the Lakefront Trail and other trails,” she said. “We have a lot of runners and cyclists that use that trail year round.” Like many of the other communities that remove snow from trails, how Chicago removes the snow depends on how much snow there is. “For light snow, we attach a broom to one of our lawn mowers,” Kubat said. “If there are a couple of inches, a plow is attached to a smaller truck.”

In 2005, the Northeast Regional office of the Rails to Trails Conservancy did a survey of 100 rail-trails from across the country. Almost half of the trails were asphalt and, of those, only about one-third did snow removal.

Some communities may believe that the cost of removing the snow from trails would be too expensive. But, the cost may not be as prohibitive as you would think, particularly if no additional staff is needed.

Gary Little estimates that it will cost Normal an additional $3,500 a year for the trail snow removal, which includes the “cost for fuel, supplies, maintenance and repair of equipment.” The Friends of the Constitution Trail donated $8,500 for a snow blower attachment for the city’s Bobcat.

LIB urges trail-maintaining agencies to plow at least half of their trails’ width, benefiting both those who want a clear surface and those who prefer the snow (e.g., cross-country skiers). Priority should be given to the most popular trails and to trails lacking bike-friendly road alternatives for transportation.

This article was originally published in the quarterly Winter 2012 issue of  Illinois Bicyclist.