The District’s snow program integrates multiple DC government agencies to achieve a single purpose: ensuring the District is safe to navigate after the end of a snowstorm and resuming normal government service and business commerce in an efficient, environmentally sustainable and safe manner.
The Department of Public Works (DPW) leads the District Snow Team with support from the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to clear our streets of snow and ice. Other team members include:
- The Department of General Services (DGS), which clears snow/ice from around municipal buildings;
- Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA), which provides coordinative activities for DC government agencies responding to winter storms;
- Serve DC, which coordinates volunteer snow shoveling services to homeowners who are seniors and/or living with a disability;
- DC Water and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), which also provide plow drivers to support the Snow Team.
Mayor Bowser will deploy the District Snow Team several hours before a storm starts so team members will be in place, ready to work when snow falls. How many resources – people, equipment and supplies – are involved will match the storm’s predicted intensity.
When the snow team is at its full strength, more than 800 people and more than 500 plows (including municipal plows as well as contractors’ plows and rental plows) will be working, divided into 12-hour shifts for the duration.
The Snow Team treats highways, commercial streets and residential streets simultaneously.