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More snow means more problems for Minneapolis side streets

With 16,000 street corners and 1,040 miles of street, public works employees have been busy trying to keep roads clear in the city.

MINNEAPOLIS — The snow is piling up in Minneapolis, and with more on the way, the streets are running out of room.

"When we have these successive snow storms we see this phenomenon happen," said Mike Kennedy, the Minneapolis public works manager .

Public works crews are seeing a lot of narrow streets and blind spots across the city.

"Places like Dinkytown, Uptown, Stevens Square, lots of places around that have the demand for on street parking," Kennedy explained.

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The city tackles priority spots first, like streets near hospitals and ambulance routes, before moving into residential streets.

"Usually it takes 10 days to get through all 16,000 corners in the city,” Kennedy said.

So, that's why your corner may still have a big pile of snow on it. Crews just haven't gotten to it yet.

“The problem with it is we’ve had these successive snows, and as soon as it snows again we have to stop and start all over,” Kennedy explained.

City crews worked fast Tuesday to get ahead of the snow. Now, only one thing stands in their way.

"We can't plow the streets if the cars aren't moved," Kennedy said.

Just one car parked illegally can screw things up for an entire block. That's because there's a couple hundred feet of snow leading up to that car that didn't get plowed and a few hundred feet of snow after it that didn’t get plowed either.

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With 16,000 corners and 1,000 miles of street, it might be some time before the crews make it back to your neighborhood.

"We really need people to comply with the rules and help us out," said Kennedy.

To report a problem spot in your neighborhood, dial 311 or use the city of Minneapolis 311 app.

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