Snow Updates - for those of you at work :)

Our snow removal has declined since VDOT took over.

 

Someone, please educate me. Why has VDOT become responsible for roads that run through residental areas of Southern Walk?

 

Short answer, because some roads are considered public and come under VDOT's jurisdiction and some are private (e.g townhouses, bond not released) that are the HOA's responsibility.

The recent newsletters have listed who is responsible for what roads.

http://www.broadlandshoa.org/newsletter/2008/01.pdf see pages 14-15.

 

Well shame on me for not being an avid reader of the newsletter, as well as allowing my frustration to led to such a misconception. Now I understand why I have always been unhappy with the snow removal on the streets that I have lived in this community- Highview Trail Pl. and Demott.

Therefore, since being enlightened, I should probably put my energy into calling that number for VDOT that was passed on to me by Mareen Burns, our Asst. General Manager of the Broadlands Association. More so since she made it quite clear that they are not responsible for our poorly managed roads, leaving me to safely assume that they do not act as a voice on our behalf either. In other words, I am on my own.

It would probably be a good idea to check into those suggested snow tires as well, since I really do want to be able to make it up the only hill to my home in the case of snowy or icy weather that occurs two or three times a year. I also hope that the few HOA-snow plowed folks living in this community know how fortunate you are to be taken such better care of then the rest of us. Better, “by far” is how it was actually stated.

 

I have to admit when VDOT plows they plow with serious equipment at least on our street. two huge plows side by side with an lead truck in front of them. I have not seen freeways with this kind of plowing equipment ha ha ha

 

Wow, I can't dissaggree with you more. Our HOA management staff works extremely hard and while I feel for your hardship, maybe you should contact the county and complain to them. There have been times when we our streets haven't been plowed until the next day while the rest of the main streets and theVDOT streets were already cleared.

Don't worry, it'll all be gone by tomorrow and it will be a better day!

 

Won't that would drive the HOA dues up.....

 

I feel your pain since I used to live in a townhome community in Ashburn Village and when we got plowed all it did was plow the snow against the back of all our cars into their parking spaces. Now THAT'S a major pain to shovel out.

Here in the Village the HOA works very hard to get the roads plowed but there are a lot of them to do so it takes quite a bit of time. Factor into that the same situation that some are HOA plowed and some VDOT and it makes the whole process seem even slower and less efficient. The staff at the HOA office drive to work, too, so I know they experience the same difficulties and are frustrated when the process takes a long time. They do what they can to get it all done asap but they can't be everywhere at once. It's not any different with other HOAs - they do their best to coordinate all the plowing.

I'm sure your hill is a tough one to climb in the snow (shift into second gear with an automatic transmission to get better traction) and causes a lot of problems for people. I have a very steep driveway and had to take a second shot at it, get a good head start going, and finally made it into the garage. Fortunately I didn't hit either side of the garage going in, either, but thought I might slide into one of them.

Anyway, we all face the same frustrations with the plowing situation. It could be improved but we just don't have the resources or experience of the more cold-weather states to have it all down pat.

Patience is a key, even when it seems pointless.

 

I don't know the quality of the plowing on other streets, but the plow job on Demott (the part from Waxpool to Wynridge) was positively dreadful (if indeed it was done at all).

The street signs/speed limit signs on that stretch are the same as in the other areas where I've heard VM is responsible, so is VM still responsible for that piece or is the county now responsible?

 

While the roads were fine later on, they were a mess just when the kids were getting out of elementary shool.

I live in the townhomes off Village drive. Nothing had been done to these roads when I left to get my kids from Mill Run Elementary. That bothered somewhat since the buses were going to be out on the roads. But I got upset when I got to the intersection of Village and Claiborne and saw one of the HOA plaws busily plowing out the empty Nature Center parking lot. In the future I think they should concentrate on the roads first!

 

Village and Claiborne are VDOT roads. The HOA plows do not clear those roads. The Nature Center parking lot was not cleared until all the roads for which the HOA was responsible had been cleaned at least once. Please refer to the Jan newsletter to determine who is responsible for clearing which roads. Contact information is also available. http://www.broadlandshoa.org/newsletter/2008/01.pdf

 

deb63-
The HOA has many things that we are responsible for. One of them is NOT being responsible for snow plowing on VDOT streets. I would not want my staff to waste their time calling VDOT every time a resident calls the HOA office to complain about VDOT's job. Your tax dollars are paying for your street plowing, so expend your energy where it may make some difference.
Also, it would be much more effective if every resident on a VDOT street that was not happy would actually call them to complain. It is a lot easier to ignore one complaint from one HOA employee than dozens of individual residents.

For what it's worth, I live on a VDOT street and it hasn't been touched.

I did look into the cost of plowing all our streets privately. It would add several hundred thousand dollars to the budget. So you would then pay a substantial increase in your HOA fees as well as the taxes you pay to no longer get the plowing done. I would love a system whereby the HOA could take over the responsibility and get a payment from VDOT equivalent to what they budget for our streets every year (if there even is a budget.)

 

Private contractors are NOT allowed to drop plows on VDOT maintained roads, nor do private contracts want to drop plows on VDOT maintained roads. Why? Because...

#1 and most important - liability. VDOT is responsible for all sewer/curb/gutter/concrete/asphalt on their maintained roads. A private contractor could get royally screwed by VDOT if they mess anything up. This also includes damage to private property, as well as personal injury. The insurance is ridiculous, and frankly, I'd rather it be VDOT's bill. As Cliff stated in his post, the expense to the HOA would be unreal.

#2 - Home owners. While the frustration of a few is understood, plowing snow is a thankless, exhausting job. No matter what you do, how hard you work, or how many hours you do it, you can never please everyone. And it destroys trucks and equipment.

#3 - Insurance the HOA must carry, that cost on top of paying a private contractor to plow miles of roadway. It would put your HOA fees through the roof, and then absolutely no one would be happy.

Snow is a fact of life around here. One we dont really deal with that often. Plan for it, deal with it, and before you know it, we will be complaining that its too hot, there is a drought and our neighbor just washed his car during a drought emergency!

 

Bella - since our street intersects with a VDOT road they(HOA) put their plowes down to clear the intersection, which I thought was mighty nice of them.

Around 10:30ish we gave the folks plowing our street, (HOA one) fresh cookies and coffee last night. Our HOA contractors were out working well into the night and that simple gesture was warmly welcomed by gratitude. The one gal asked "why" and our response was "its a thankless job and we wanted you to know we appreciate what you're doing".

 

Thanks BellaRu for you smart addtion to this thread.

Any of you around here in '83 '95 and a few years later? Well you would have been under 4-5 feet of snow an dsuper gusty winds, and we didn't see a plow for days so all of us in our neighborhood (Ashburn Farm at the time) got out and did the street ourselves...so nothing to gripe about here. This is a huge area, and having been in SW for 4+ years, it has only been recently that VDOT took over Ridgeway. We had a plow behind us in the culo-de-sac around midnight last night. Thanks to that person they can get out. I know I wouldn't want that job....we're a corner lot and have a lot of sidewalk to cover, aside from our driveway, so we bought a powerful snow blower 2 years ago.

What I love is people are never happy! When it is cold they wish it was warmer, when It is hot they wish it was cooler, when it rains (after many days of drought) how soon do we see on the news the weather peeps telling us not to worry the rain won't last! Come on already!

 

Pea-
That was very very sweet of you, and Im sure the contractors appreciated it greatly. You are the kind of home owners contractors like to see!

Clearing the intersections is SOP, because VDOT normally blocks them in. We call it "tuck and tighten" !

And thank you Brassy!

 

It is also called being fiscally responsible.

Considering on average that NoVa gets 3-5 days during a winter season that plowing is actually needed, it is not smart to budget significant $$$ for the task. And "typically" within a day or 2, significant meltage occurs.

Every region is different. As Pats Fan said, the snow remeoval budget for Atlanta is $0. Just wait until the next day. Having lived in New Hamshire for a time, snow removal is taken much more seriously and costs much more. As a kid, we NEVER missed school due to snow.