How icy are the roads?

Are they really that bad?

Highways east and south are fine.

One report: Maplewood roads are icy, while South Orange roads are clear.

A friend just came by and said that the roads are "Horrible, [icy] including Parker".

We live on a quiet street but there is still usually a fair amount of passing cars in the morning. Today, so far NOBODY has driven by.

A neighbor got as far as Parker, turned around and came back home.

Maplewood roads are ridiculously bad. Springfield Avenue in particular doesn't look like it has even been touched by a plow - there are 3-4 inches of solid ice covering the entire road. The problem is clearly the plowing job - where some roads cross Springfield, you could see they had been plowed properly (because there was actually asphalt, rather than ice, to drive on), and the roads were fine as soon as you cross into Springfield / Union.

After walking to the train this morning, I'd agree some of our streets are awful. Odd, because the plows came by frequently, but the streets I walked on today were covered with a thick layer of packed snow/ice.

We live in a fire route and our street is a solid sheet of ice. The plows came through but I don't believe that they put any salt or sand down.

I wonder why the town didn't drop salt before or after this storm like they usually do. They certainly knew it was coming.

South Orange roads seem good. Maplewood less so. Springfield Avenue is an unplowed mess.

I just finished reading comments about road conditions on FB's SOMA Lounge and it sounds like a disaster. I live on a side road which is not very good and I have not been out yet but assumed major roads would be in better shape. Apparently not so. This is not entirely unexpected. The way the town handles snow has gone dramatically downhill since Eric Burbank retired in 2014. I remember noticing on the first snowstorm after he left that for the first time in more than 20 years living here, i was nervous driving down the Pierson hill (by the Golf Course, not the steeper South Pierson one) the morning after because of the poor snow handling/icing. My husband and I, both distance runners, would note how Maplewood roads were always in much better shape for running after snow storms than South Orange and Millburn. Now the opposite is true.

Confirming above, Springfield Ave., by big box stores is an inches thick sheet of ice but other major roads seem better.

By the way, in South Orange near Grove Park/Seton Hall/Beth El, the roads were very bad as well. Same thing, plows didn't/couldn't get to the pavement it seems. Saw some cars had slid up onto curbs or were otherwise stuck. This was last night.

Can someone tell me which areas of S.O. have clear or mostly clear roads? I plan to run later and will drive over from Maplewood since it is a mess here. Thank you.

South Orange Ave by Seton Hall is terrible--both earlier this a.m. and at noon when I returned. Several inches of ice---not smooth, but rough like a washboard. Isn't SO Ave a county road?

Plowing for this storm in my area of Maplewood seemed to be much more random than is normal. Maplewood plowed our local street early in the a.m. and then didn't come back until mid-afternoon. I'm on a corner and aside from the a.m. plowing the corner was never plowed clear by Maplewood. The other end of my block is in South Orange and as their plow circled the block they kept the plow down and cleared part of the corner.

Plows went down our street several times yesterday but there is still an inch or so of packed snow/ice. Most roads in the area are the same way. Springfield Ave was a mess, even worse than my street. Valley looked pretty clear but Prospect was still covered.

Roads around noon seemed better than earlier in the day because the coating of ice was softening with the sunshine. Don't know how they will be later today when they start to refreeze. Best of the bunch was Valley Street which is a County Road.

Plows going through the softened icy streets in Maplewood to clear them now, then dropping sand. Expect a slushy ice wall in your driveway apron.

Ridgewood was an icy snowy mess this morning, as if it hadn't been touched. ETC Mary Gee - I hadn't considered the correlation between Eric Burbank's retirement and the poor cleanup, but I think you're on to something!

Maplewood roads are still embarrassingly bad. They need lessons from South Orange

bets said:

Maplewood roads are still embarrassingly bad. They need lessons from South Orange

No comment on Maplewood's efforts, but I did note that South Orange salted before things got bad, then plowed multiple times, then salted again when it was basically over.

I'm no expert, but maybe the initial salting made the plowing more effective because it didn't stick, and the subsequent salting helped with combatting re-freeze.

South Orange DPW always does a great job. Eric Burbank used to as well. Maybe Maplewood was low on salt?

I live on a busy (ish) street in Maplewood and saw the plows multiple times yesterday, but it was later in the day. And I did notice that they were not dropping salt even tho most of the plow trucks had salt in the back. Maybe they were waiting for it to finish snowing before putting it down? I don't know the reasoning, but it sounds like from the comments above maybe they should have salted from the beginning...

FilmCarp said:

South Orange roads seem good. Maplewood less so.

I live in Maplewood near the South Orange border. This has been our experience for the past few years. I haven't been out driving yet since Tuesday, but in general our roads will be a mess, drive two blocks and cross over into South Orange and suddenly the street is cleared down to the asphalt curb to curb.

I'd like to know what the plow driver was thinking late yesterday when s/he cleared Prospect Street by depositing a two to three car length long, entire span of the roadway wide pile of solid ice slush at the entrance to Courter Avenue completely sealing off the previously cleared cross walk. I assume, but don't know for certain if this was repeated on other side streets in my neighborhood. Yes, I already submitted a service request to the town and will be calling DPW later this morning.

Any word from the town as to their poor response to this storm?

^^^ I spoke with Vic about this yesterday. He is well aware and not happy.

Regarding my post immediately above yours, I received a reply to my service request stating that they are sending a crew to clear the area. Not sure how or when, or where they intend to put the frozen slush. now. It was interesting watching cars bounce between Prospect and Courter this morning.

We saw a plow driving down Prospect in the middle of the day yesterday It was going quite fast as it was plowing, making about a 5-foot wave of icy slush fly up and curve off the side of its plow. It was super cool to watch, and probably helped make the plowing process go faster, but this was likely one of the culprits in the snow/slush getting put across entrances (and the crosswalks) of the cross streets.

What happened to Maplewood DPW? They really dropped the ball after this storm. Many roads are still covered in snow and ice.

As someone mentioned upthread (or on FB, can't remember), it seems to have gone downhill since the retirement of Eric Burbank.

yahooyahoo said:

What happened to Maplewood DPW? They really dropped the ball after this storm. Many roads are still covered in snow and ice.

Was just out trying unsuccessfully to clear at least one of the cutouts to the street. Both are iced in solid with a layer of snow and slush that is far too wide to leap across. Morning traffic seems to have moved the slush mound from the north side of the street but the south (shadier side) remains hopelessly blocked. After working for an hour or so, I was able to mostly clear my apron so my neighbors and myself can gain access to the street but crossing Prospect on foot will still be a challenge. I will look shortly to see if the crosswalk at Tuscan is passable.

My husband claims that Maplewood uses subcontractors for plowing. Can anyone officially confirm or deny this? It would explain a lot if it is true.