Anchorage crews haul almost 900,000 cubic yards of snow so far this winter

State and municipal maintenance crews have hauled almost 900,000 cubic yards of snow off the Anchorage streets and into snow dumps so far this winter, and the process is still ongoing.

Crews with the Alaska Department of Transportation have so far hauled more than 120,000 cubic yards of snow in Anchorage. Meanwhile, the municipality says it has hauled about 750,000 cubic yards of snow, about 38,000 truckloads.

While those snow totals are much higher than recent years, transportation officials say that’s right around Anchorage’s long term average. But what made this winter most challenging to the city’s resources was not the amount of snow, but how quickly it all fell.

“Because the storms were back to back we were actually a little bit delayed with our snow haul so when we finally got started we were basically around the clock,” said DOT spokesperson Shannon McCarthy. “We were doing the snow haul at night and plowing during the day.”

While DOT says it finally wrapped up snow hauling operations on Wednesday, Paul VanLandingham with the municipality’s street maintenance division says city crews will likely be hauling snow for another couple weeks.

While the recent clear weather and sunny skies have given crews an opportunity to catch up on snow hauling, transportation officials are expecting more snow to fall before spring thaw begins.

“We anticipate there's going to be some more,” McCarthy said. “But this stretch of cold and clear weather has been really beneficial for us to get caught up.”