Snow removal: the nuts and bolts of local government in New England

From the Beacon, March 2026

While we’ve had snowier winters (remember 2015?), last week brought a storm with intensity and snow accumulation that most of us have never experienced in our lifetimes. In some areas, the snow totals from the Blizzard of ’26 eclipsed the totals from the infamous Blizzard of ’78.

This storm wreaked havoc in eastern Massachusetts, particularly the southeast and Cape Cod. Many lost power for an extended period, and in some cases, schools were closed for the entire week.

All of this put significant pressure on residents, parents and, of course, local officials. While this pressure likely resulted in frustration being directed at the hard-working people in city and town halls, one municipal department in particular was hard at work long before, and long after, these city and town halls were open: the department of public works.

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, it can be easy for residents to take some things for granted. But in the winter, we should all be grateful that we have dedicated public works employees across the Commonwealth standing ready to work long hours in dangerous conditions to battle a relentless storm like the one we saw last week.

Let’s consider the challenging nature of the work of snow removal. For starters, most of the staff we’re talking about are typically day-shift employees who are used to working from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., or something similar. But throughout the winter, these same folks climb into large trucks for overnight shifts, while we’re all sleeping, to salt and sand our roads if there is even a chance of icing or light snowfall.

For a storm like the Blizzard of ’26, crews started pre-treating roads in the early evening — before the first snowflakes — in order to get ahead of the storm. Following that process, they needed to shift to begin plowing operations overnight as the snow came down. This obviously continued throughout the night, and all day Monday until the snowfall finally diminished in the evening. So we’re talking about a 24-hour shift at this point. And let’s not forget just how challenging it is to plow snow that is falling at the rate of 2 to 3 inches per hour.

Now it might seem like this is the end of it, but it certainly is not. In towns and cities across the Commonwealth, overnight snow removal operations had to be planned for almost the entirety of last week to clear curb cuts and crosswalks, clean up business districts, and provide safe routes to school. These are tough overnight shifts, in cold conditions — all focused on getting life back to normal as quickly as possible for the residents of the Commonwealth.

I, for one, am immensely grateful for the people that do this work. I am thankful to the public works directors, plow drivers, heavy equipment operators and everyone else who plays a role in these challenging and complex operations. It’s also important to call out the good work of private plow drivers, used by many municipalities, who are a critical part of making all of this work.

All told, I hope that the residents of the Commonwealth can find a way to express their gratitude to their local DPW. These are hard-working folks, and living in New England means that we need people brave enough to climb 8 feet up into a snow fighter to take on whatever Mother Nature has to dish out. The DPWs of the Commonwealth have my thanks, and I hope many more will join me in saying the same.