Clearing operations after this January’s snow and ice storm cost Arlington County upwards of $4.5 million.
The county’s response to the Jan. 25 winter storm — including hauling over 2 million pounds of snow from commercial corridors, clearing over 900 bus stops and running emergency operations for 165 hours straight — far exceeded the Department of Environmental Services’ base budget for snow operations.
While the department has a base snow-operations budget of $1.7 million, that one snowstorm alone ran up an estimated $4.5 million in “unbudgeted costs,” county spokesperson Ryan Hudson told ARLnow.
The money came from the county’s stabilization reserve, Hudson said.
In public discussions since the late-January storm, county staff have described numerous unique challenges resulting from about 5 inches of snowfall, followed by around 2-3 inches of icy sleet and nearly 10 straight days of frigid conditions.
In the days after the storm, crews hauled over 6,500 truckloads of icy debris, depositing it into mounds at five sites around the county. One of those mounds, in a parking lot on the 1400 block of N. Quincy Street, has persisted for the last two months.
Despite these efforts, an informal ARLnow poll indicated broad dissatisfaction with the county’s snow response, with less than half of respondents rating it a “C+” or higher. County Manager Mark Schwartz is expected to return in July with plans on how to improve next winter.
Pricey as Arlington’s snow response was, it appears to have been less costly than Alexandria’s. The city spent $9.7 million on its snow response, ARLnow’s sister site ALXnow reported.
About $8.4 million of that spending was on contract services, while city labor cost $600,000 and materials, supplies, food and lodging for employees cost $700,000.
