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Fairfax Co. leaders asking VDOT to explain its response to last week’s snow

Over a week after this winter’s first significant snowfall, Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors detailed plans to press Virginia’s Department of Transportation for information on what went wrong during the agency’s response.

VDOT is responsible for treating and plowing the county’s roads. After any storm that produces 6 or more inches of snow, the agency aims to have the roads cleared within 72 hours, Supervisor James Bierman said.

VDOT, though, said it hasn’t published clearance goals.

The agency clears main streets and thoroughfares from curb to curb, and makes residential streets passable, which means an 8-to-10 foot path for emergency vehicles and drivable with caution.

But during a meeting this week, several board members said the cleanup efforts varied. Some roads were clear, while others were left covered in ice.

The concerns prompted the board to have County Executive Bryan Hill ask VDOT for an after-action report of what went wrong, with a focus on planning beforehand and execution afterward. The inquiry will also ask VDOT to offer insight into how it will handle the next snow event differently, and it’ll invite the transportation department to a future meeting to talk about snow removal.

“Removal worked and worked really well in a lot of the county. In other areas, it just did not work at all,” Chairman Jeff McKay said. “And I think a lot of that is a factor of the many different contractors and the work that they do in the county.”

Meanwhile, Bierman said VDOT’s website “frequently provided inaccurate information to residents and county staff alike, and efforts to get VDOT to return to certain neighborhood streets repeatedly failed.”

Some residents emailed Supervisor Andres Jimenez, explaining they didn’t feel safe and said their cars were sliding around on untreated roads. He said the roads were not adequately treated.

“2025 is a good year to start something really, really good,” Jimenez said. “It’s called communication.”

McKay said some roads, such as Telegraph Road, were still covered with snow, while others had been taken care of, “so that tells you that there’s a huge delta in the way those were treated and the way the contractors ran them.”

He also criticized Fairfax County Public Schools’ decision to close for four days, saying he’s “shocked as to why we didn’t do to virtual learning.” The school system has several snow days built into its calendar, so it’s still on track to meet the minimum number of school days and hours required by Virginia law.

“We’ve invested a lot of resources and money into that program, and other jurisdictions went to virtual learning, and I’d like an explanation as to why we didn’t,” McKay said. “But I do think there are issues directly related VDOT and their performance that affect schools as well.”

A spokesperson with VDOT confirmed to ݮý that is “aware of and reviewing the Fairfax County Board matter. We continue to work with all of our locality partners.”

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Scott Gelman

Scott Gelman is a digital editor and writer for ݮý. A South Florida native, Scott graduated from the University of Maryland in 2019. During his time in College Park, he worked for The Diamondback, the school’s student newspaper.

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