LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — After a severe winter storm in January left many Lexington side streets slick for days, forcing school closures and creating transportation challenges, city officials have announced significant improvements to their snow response plan for the upcoming winter season.
The January 2025 storm was particularly challenging for the community, leading to seven consecutive days of school cancellations or non-traditional instruction days while road crews worked to clear and treat side streets.
"We had significant snow that occurred and then it kind of compounded and then we had this ice pack and one of the things that we didn't really speak about this, you know, in this meeting was the lack of sunshine during that period of time as well," said Daryn Morris, director of transportation for Fayette County Public Schools.
The storm prompted extensive collaboration between school and city officials to identify problem areas that needed immediate attention.
"We made an adjustment in the school system where I put somebody in the terminal and then when we go out and we check the roads for the school buses, we send the data back in. I have a team of people that do that, but we're sending it to our person who's communicating with them too, so we're letting them know about trouble spots that we potentially see," Morris said.
At a recent Urban County Council committee meeting, Rob Allen, director of streets and roads, outlined the additional resources being added to the city's winter weather response. The improvements include three new dump trucks, three additional contractor dump trucks, and expanded coverage for roads that weren't adequately addressed during the January storm.
"All the streets on a route get treated and we may start at the end and work backwards or forwards and work backwards so we're not as focused on the road ranking as we are the route itself and there are essentially four trucks in that zone working at the same time all going to clear the roads," Allen said.
City officials acknowledge that January's storm was unusual in its severity and duration, but they're using lessons learned to improve future responses.
"They're all important to us, and as I said, we do have a plan to add those additional streets when we get those big snows or the extended snow," Allen said.
The city has made substantial investments in winter weather preparedness. Lexington currently has 8,000 tons of salt in storage with $1.2 million budgeted for additional purchases if needed. The city has also invested $1.9 million in new tanker trucks, dump trucks and additional snow removal equipment.
In total, 147 employees — including 82 from the streets and roads department — are prepared to help clear streets when severe weather hits.
The finalized snow response plan will be released October 31 on the city's website.
