The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is seeking answers to what it feels was an inadequate response to last week’s Jan. 6 snowstorm by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).
“Planning, execution and communication fell far short of the service level that our residents demand and deserve,” supervisors said in a joint board matter adopted at the governing body’s meeting today (Tuesday).
“The inconsistency is the biggest challenge,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said. While snow-clearing efforts “worked and worked very well” in some areas of the county, other areas seemed almost forgotten.
“There was just a huge level of variability,” agreed Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman, who brought the motion forward for consideration.
Hampering recovery efforts was several days of very low temperatures following the storm. Any snow that remained atop pavement quickly turned to ice and proved more difficult to dislodge.
A D.C. resident who works in Tysons told FFXnow this morning that the walk to and from the Tysons Metro station remains “treacherous as the snow has turned to slick ice.”
“This seems to be VDOT’s property, with nobody in charge of clearing them,” Kyle Brewer said by email. “Even the ADA curb cuts are blocked by plowed ridges of now hard ice.”
McKay noted that nearly all public roadways in Fairfax County are under the authority of the state government, which uses both its own personnel and contractors to remove snow.
“This is a VDOT responsibility, not a Fairfax County responsibility,” McKay said. “It’s confusing for a lot of folks. This is an important opportunity to remind folks.”
Supervisors acknowledged that VDOT’s reporting of plowing progress through its VDOT Plows online portal and other avenues itself is largely reliant on information it gets from contractors.
Most supervisors seemed eager to improve channels of communication with their VDOT counterparts, rather than simply cast blame.
“I am looking forward to working with VDOT to ensure [response to] our next storm goes better,” Bierman said.
The resolution directs County Executive Bryan Hill to:
- Request that VDOT provide a full after-action assessment of what went wrong, focused both on planning before the snow and execution after it fell, including information about how VDOT reviewed the performance of its contractors and confirmed that roads were adequately plowed and treated.
- Provide the Board of Supervisors with an assessment of any additional measures VDOT will implement to improve service in future snow events.
- Provide the Board of Supervisors with any considerations related to lobbying the Commonwealth for change, including whether the Board of Supervisors needs to formally request an update to VDOT’s “passable” definition.
- Invite VDOT to a future Board of Supervisors Transportation Committee meeting to discuss snow removal.
Before moving on to other matters, several supervisors voiced concern about Fairfax County Public Schools being closed for four days during and after the storm. That gave students nearly a week off immediately following a two-week winter break.
McKay said he was “shocked” the school system didn’t move to online learning to get the educational process jump-started, if returning to classrooms was deemed impractical.
Following experiments with remote learning while schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, FCPS revised its snow-day policy in 2021 to shift to virtual learning after five snow days. However, the school system restored a full 11 snow days in 2023, citing a need to “ensure equitable access to instruction and student services for all students.”
“It’s a struggle for our teachers and kids to get back on track” after what ended up being nearly three weeks away, McKay said, adding in jest but no doubt speaking for many local parents that his “kids [were] driving us crazy” during that extended layoff.
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity agreed there were better options than just cancelling classes. He said one or two snow days for students and staff was understandable, but “when we get to three, four days, we’ve got to get them back.”
The ability to reopen schools after inclement weather depends on VDOT getting roadways into a condition that makes them safe to travel, Bierman noted.
“We lost four days of school … on what was a sizable but not huge storm,” he said.
Schools eventually reopened last Friday, Jan. 10, with a two-hour delay. It was the first day students had classes since Dec. 20, 2024.
