Call it trial by ice.
In October, the city adopted a new Snow and Ice Removal Policy to codify which roads would be prioritized during a snow event in the city.
Little did anyone realize just how often city crews would turn to the new policy in the months to come.
"We did a completely different approach to snow," Mayor Henry Braun said. "We didn't realize it would be the first winter we tried it out."
The previous procedure was based on a zone approach, with different equipment assigned to certain areas of the city, at which point first-priority roads would get cleaned first. The new official council policy puts the focus on clearing all top-priority roads throughout the city, wherever they are located.
Braun said the strategy has been effective, although December's first snowfall illustrated the need for improvements in the clearing of some sidewalks.
"We'll tweak it a little bit," he said.
By February, some changes had been made, but even more snow fell.
Staff are working in shifts, with 19 trucks in continuous operation, including some private contractors who have been hired.
"We are throwing everything we have at it," Braun said. "The problem with this snowfall is this is twice as much snow as we had [in December]."
But buying more equipment isn't feasible, given the rarity of snow events like those seen this year.
"This only happens once every 20 or 30 years."
Crews are dispatched out of the city's King Road works yard. Working with a dispatcher, drivers cover a route with a focus on higher-priority roads in need of plowing. After a normal snow event, crews would work their way from first- to second- then to third-priority roads.
"They work through this methodically," engineering and utilities general manager Peter Sparanese told The News Tuesday. By Wednesday, he estimated the city had spent around $800,000 of its approximately $1.1 million snow removal budget.
This week has been far from normal, and crews have been struggling to clear second-priority roads before more snow forces a return to the top priority thoroughfares.
Staff are recruited from a variety of departments for snow-clearing work, and by Tuesday, city workers were also set to start trying to clear the 500-plus bus stops across the city, along with storm drains and other important areas.
Of course, the snow returned again Wednesday, forcing much of the work back to square one. Again.