Image via Alex Weaver

On Wednesday, Mayor Marty Walsh addressed the Boston again to provide updates on how the city fared during the brunt of Winter Storm Juno and the status of municipal snow operations.

City Hall will lift Boston’s snow emergency and parking ban at 5 p.m. Wednesday and officials will no longer ticket and tow cars.

The Department of Public Works will work to make Boston Public Schools accessible, and the mayor will announce if they’ll reopen their doors to students later Wednesday afternoon.

“This was the sixth biggest storm in the City of Boston’s history,” said Mayor Walsh. “We’re now in the phase of snow removal and operation recovery.”

Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia, Mayor de Blasio of New York City and Vice President Biden all called Mayor Walsh to offer aid in any capacity they can.

The mayor also thanked residents for staying indoors for as long as possible and employees for allowing them to work from home.

Now that the snowfall has ceased, people are outside shoveling out their driveways, sidewalks and vehicles. Bostonians are urged people to shovel out fire hydrants, elderly peoples’ homes, and to refrain from tossing shoveled snow back into the street.

For safety reasons, Mayor Walsh is asking further that people who take to the streets walk single file on the sidewalks, and take out headphones.

“It’s a pretty fluid situation in the Public Works Department,” said Commissioner Michael Dennehy.

His team will be working 24/7 to scrape, widen and re-salt roadways. At 1 p.m., they’ll reopen critical travel lanes on Congress Street and left-turn locations.

Some 150 trucks will haul snow tonight, mostly from BPS drop zones and school bus stops.

On Thursday, they’ll begin the melting phase using three melters the locations of which are still to be determined. Some snow will be brought to a snow farm on Tide Street this morning to help with efforts, and the Department of Neighborhood Development also offered up two locations of their own.

Dennehy noted that Boston is facing more inclement and snowy weather this weekend through Tuesday, and to help prepare for that while simultaneously digging out Boston DPW is recapturing some of the salt they’ve already used.

When someone asked the obligatory space-saver question, Mayor Walsh offered the following with a hint of frustration:

“Let me just say this about space savers. Neighbors in Boston should treat each other with respect… this gets blown out of proportion every year.”

Image via Alex Weaver
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