Fairfax County is now in its third day of recovery from the snowstorm that walloped the D.C. region on Monday (Jan. 6), but traveling in McLean remains a struggle.
Resident Jennifer Myers told FFXnow last night (Wednesday) that about an inch of compacted ice has accumulated on the roads in her neighborhood near McLean High School, presenting safety concerns for both drivers and pedestrians.
“A large tree service truck spun out for 30 minutes, ending up sideways and blocking the entire width of our street,” Myers said by email. “There are elderly people (and all people) who can’t safely get to the grocery store, work, doctors’ appointments, the pharmacy for medicine, etc. I have a large SUV that can get through 2 feet of snow and I started spinning out.”
All areas of McLean have been marked as “100% completed” on the Virginia Department of Transportation’s snow plow tracking map, but photos taken by residents yesterday afternoon and shared by Myers show roads where the pavement remains covered by a layer of snow and ice, including some downtown streets like Beverly Road.
Some residents are still waiting to see a plow come through their street, while others say their streets are still covered with ice even after a plow has passed.
“I worry that we still won’t be safe after they ‘clear’ our streets,” Myers said.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman said his office had received about 100 complaints this week about inadequate snow plowing from constituents in McLean and the Falls Church area.
The reports have been forwarded to VDOT, which owns and maintains nearly all Fairfax County roads, with requests that the department send staff “to review these roads and take action as appropriate,” Bierman told FFXnow.
Since Monday’s snowstorm hit, VDOT has had crews working around the clock in 12-hour shifts to remove snow from roadways. Streets in residential subdivisions are marked as “complete” once they’re considered passable, which is defined as having an 8 to 10-foot-wide path that’s “driveable with caution,” according to VDOT spokesperson Ellen Kamilakis.
‼️ Reminder: our crews work to make roads PASSABLE, meaning you may not see bare pavement (even after multiple passes) and you should still exercise extreme caution when driving on plowed roads. Assume wet spots are ice. pic.twitter.com/IczSsT653L
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) January 8, 2025
According to a graphic shared by VDOT’s Northern Virginia office, the goal of making roads passable is to ensure emergency vehicles can get through, but bare pavement might still not be visible “even after multiple passes.”
For example, the intersection of McLean’s Rupert Street and Lemon Road, as shown in one of the photos shared by Myers, meets the definition of “passable,” Kamilakis says.
“Once all of the subdivision roads are made passable, crews then work through a list of roads that have had complaints in some form or fashion,” she told FFXnow last night. “I spoke to the maintenance folks in that area and they are planning to get back out to Rupert/Lemon likely tonight as it is on their list.”
Still, Bierman added that he has noticed an “inconsistency in the quality of plowing in areas” labeled as “complete” by VDOT.
“We will continue to demand that VDOT improve the roads that do not seem passable through additional plowing and/or salt and sand application, especially in our hilly neighborhoods,” the supervisor said in a statement.
Myers told FFXnow this morning (Thursday) that some streets in her neighborhood had been treated with salt overnight, “but about 50% of the roads are still covered in solid ice.”
McLean doesn’t appear to be the only part of the county still grappling with challenging road conditions days after Monday’s storm, which left between 6 and 10 inches of snow, per the National Weather Service.
Fairfax County Public Schools has canceled classes for four consecutive days now. When announcing that today (Thursday) would be another snow day, Superintendent Michelle Reid cited lingering safety hazards from bus stops and sidewalks still covered in snow.
Further heightening the urgency of efforts to clear roads and sidewalks is the prospect of more snow to come. As of this writing, the National Weather Service is forecasting an 80% chance of snow tomorrow (Friday) night and a 30% chance on Saturday (Jan. 11).
“There is a slight winter storm threat Saturday into Sunday,” the NWS said in a hazardous weather outlook published at 3:36 p.m. yesterday. “If this threat materializes, travel disruptions are possible.”
