It’s one thing to plow snow off streets, it’s another thing to get rid of snowbanks

map of downtown winter maintenance area City of COncord—Credit

A Concord city dump truck dumps the snow from the downtown winter maintenance area that was collected overnight to the dumping area off of Old Turnpike Road near the transfer station. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

A Concord city plow truck pushes the snow from the recents storms from the sidewalks and parking spaces into the middle of Court Street where a giant snow blower can load the snow into city dump trucks in the early morning hours of February 20, 2025. The road was closed from midnight to 7 a.m. so that crews could get rid of all the snow in the downtown winter maintenance area. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

A Concord city plow truck pushes the snow from the recents storms from the sidewalks and parking spaces into the middle of Main Street where a giant snow blower can load the snow into city dump trucks in the early morning hours of February 20, 2025. The road was closed from midnight to 7 a.m. so that crews could get rid of all the snow in the downtown winter maintenance area. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

Work crews in several kinds of vehicles push the snow from the recent storms from the sidewalks and parking spaces into the middle of Main Street where a giant snow blower could load the snow into dump trucks in the early morning hours of Feb. 20. The road was closed from midnight to 7 a.m. so that crews could get rid of the snow in the downtown winter maintenance area. GEOFF FORESTER photos / Monitor staff

Main Street in Concord was closed from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning so city work crews could remove snow from the recents storms off of the sidewalk and parking spaces. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

A Concord city worker uses a small snow plow to push the snow from the recents storms from the sidewalks and parking spaces into the middle of Main Street where a giant snow blower can load the snow into city dump trucks in the early morning hours of February 20, 2025. The road was closed from midnight to 7 a.m. so that crews could get rid of all the snow in the downtown winter maintenance area. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

A Concord city dump truck dumps the snow from the downtown winter maintenance area that was collected overnight to the dumping area off of Old Turnpike Road near the transfer station.

A Concord city worker uses a small plow to push the snow from the recent storms from the sidewalks and parking spaces into the middle of Main Street where a giant snow blower can load the snow into city dump trucks in the early morning hours of Feb. 20. The road was closed from midnight to 7 a.m. so that crews could get rid of all the snow in the downtown winter maintenance area. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff

By DAVID BROOKS

Monitor staff

Published: 02-20-2025 1:51 PM

Modified: 02-21-2025 11:17 AM

With around a foot and a half of snow on the ground in and around Concord, some aspects of city life are getting a bit tricky – particularly involving parking cars.

The city not only has to plow the snow aside during storms, it also needs to remove the remaining snowbanks, particularly in the downtown area afterward.

The city has announced five Winter Storm Event Parking Bans with follow-up Winter Maintenance Parking Bans in the past month following a string of storms. The first tells car owners to stop on-street parking during and right after a storm so the roads can be plowed. The city’s three municipal parking garages are free during declared snow emergencies.

The Winter Maintenance Parking Ban is designed to remove accumulated snow, which was the case Wednesday night.

Roughly between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. the city General Services Department brings in an army of plows and front-loaders, from small ones on sidewalks to huge ones that require special operators’ licenses. Snow is pushed into long windrows in the center of the street, where industrial snowblowers scoop it up and toss it into dump trucks.

Those trucks take it to Concord’s snow-storage site on Old Turnpike Road, next to the city transfer station, where it is dumped into increasingly large piles – more like hills – that can last well into the spring.

This doesn’t remove all the snow from downtown, as anybody trying to clamber over roadside piles to go shopping can attest, but it helps.

For more details see the city’s Winter Operations page at www.concordnh.gov/winteroperations

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