Almost half a meter of new snow fell in Munich on the night of December 1st, and the city couldn’t keep up with clearing the snow. The delays caused a lot of dissatisfaction. But reacting to such extreme events is difficult, explained Florian Schnabel from the construction department, who reported on the problems to the city council on Wednesday in response to an urgent request from the CSU and Free Voters.
“We were not unprepared,” emphasized Schnabel. A total of around 1,000 employees and over 600 vehicles from the clearing and gritting services were on duty around the clock to remove as much of the snow as possible. However, the falling temperatures made clearing work more difficult, as the snow froze in many places before thawing and freezing again. “This is an unsatisfactory situation for us too,” said Schnabel. From the construction department’s point of view, equipping the winter service for such extreme events is neither logistically possible nor economically justifiable.
Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) also saw it that way at the general assembly. What could be clarified from his point of view: who decides whether to grit sidewalks when there is ice and slippery conditions. So far this has been the mayor himself, but Reiter wants to transfer responsibility for this to the building department. However, no decision was made on this on Wednesday. The use of corrosive substances such as road salt is prohibited on sidewalks for environmental reasons; Reiter repealed this regulation with an urgent order on December 7th.
So that the winter service can better withstand the next extreme snowfall, four private clearing vehicles and two municipal replacement vehicles will be available in the future. In addition, smaller clearing and gritting vehicles are to be purchased that can also serve narrow streets and, if necessary, cycle paths and sidewalks. The construction department wants to coordinate better with the Munich Transport Company (MVG) in extreme weather situations in the future.
The MVG itself did not provide any information in the city council on Wednesday. A speaker was absent due to illness and no replacement was sent. That caused dissatisfaction. Jörg Hoffmann (FDP) even saw it as “a disregard for the city council”. Hans-Peter Mehling (Free Voters) called for better clearing, especially at bus stops and side streets. “We have to guarantee that to our citizens,” said Mehling.