“This winter has been something else,” said Karen Kovacs, city manager. “There was a lot of heavy snow that came all at once, and it just kept coming.”

As the winter has gone on, Marquette has only gotten more snow, receiving a total of 61.9 inches in January according to the National Weather Service. This amount is well above the average January snowfall of 42.1 inches.

“It’s taken a lot longer than normal to clear, because so much came all at once, then we kept getting more,” said Kovacs.

And higher-than-average snowfall hasn’t been the only obstacle to contend with when it comes to clearing all of the streets.

A bulldozer is seen shaping the piles of snow at the snow storage site on Pioneer Road. (Journal photo by Annie Lippert)

“We have had numerous pieces of equipment down this winter, which has caused some struggles,” said Scott Cambensy of the Public Works Department. “While this has caused some delays, the streets, sidewalk routes, and bike path have generally remained open. Additionally, we have had ongoing water hydrant clearing and water main breaks to contend with.”

With 91 miles of city streets to clear, plus sidewalks and the bike paths, city crews have had their work cut out for them.

“Now that there’s been a bit of a lull, our main focus is snow-hauling,” said Kovacs. “We’re working on removing embankments so sight lines are clear, and as we’re getting into February we’ll start getting those drains cleared for when the snow starts melting.”

Cutting down all of those curb embankments requires multiple crews, including a night shift focusing on areas that are difficult to get to when there’s more traffic.

“We’ve had over 1,800 hours of overtime just in the month of January,” said Cambensy. “We have been removing snow on both extended day shift, extended night shift and some weekends when we have not been plowing snow.”

Kovacs says that the city has cleared about 25 miles of street snowbanks so far. That’s a lot of snow, with much more to come as the focus turns to more local streets.

Luckily, the city of Marquette has several designated sites to dump excess snow. Currently the two sites getting the most use are a lot on Hebard Court and College Avenue near the Northern Michigan University Campus and the old ball field on Pioneer Road past M-553.

In the past few weeks, bulldozers and dump trucks working together to cut down the curb snow and remove some of the bulk from parking lots have been seen. This snow is taken to city-designated snow storage sites.

There are three other available sites for snow storage in the city in addition to the ones on Hebard Court and Pioneer Road, but they “have limited use so far,” according to Cambensy.

Plenty of room for what’s to come.

“The next grouping includes major streets, sidewalk routes and school zones,” said Cambensy. “We will be working on the local streets following the UP200.”

“Our staff are killing it,” said Kovacs. “They’re doing a fantastic job getting everywhere. So far nothing is too far out of the ordinary. It’s nothing we can’t keep up with.”

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.