Seattle Snow and Ice Control

About Seattle Snow and Ice Control

East of town, SR-18 climbs out of the valley toward the Cascade foothills, and the grade holds ice long after the flatter streets below have cleared — commuters heading that way in the dark learn to watch for it. Seattle Snow and Ice Control runs its earliest routes along that corridor, clearing the driveways and lots that feed onto it before the morning climb begins in earnest. The lower town and the foothill grade are really two different climates separated by a few hundred feet of elevation, and the crew treats them that way, working the higher, colder properties first. A lot cleared at five that would have iced over again by seven is no use to anyone, so the routes are timed to the cold, not the clock. By the hour Auburn's flatter neighborhoods are just waking up, the properties along that eastern climb are already scraped down to pavement.