WATCH: NYC Rolls Out Huge ‘Hot Tubs’ To Melt Snow After Whiteout Winter Storm
[Videos below.] Large snow-melting tubs have been put back into service across New York City for the first time in nearly five years as crews work to clear lingering snow left behind by Sunday’s deadly winter storm, the NY Post reports.
City sanitation officials said Wednesday that eight of the specialized machines, known as snow melters, were deployed early Tuesday to remove snow from streets, sidewalks, and bus stops that would otherwise remain for weeks because temperatures have stayed below freezing.
“The snow is just not melting at all, [and] we want to make sure we have enough real estate for businesses and pedestrians to get around freely,” Acting Department of Sanitation Commissioner Javier Lojan told The NY Post.
“In the next couple of days, they’ll notice the difference,” he said.
Each of the snow melters is capable of liquefying between 60 and 120 tons of snow per hour. The machines have been placed at locations such as Broad and Water streets in lower Manhattan, where massive piles of snow—some spanning the size of a football field—are fed into the tubs, which operate at about 38 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once the snow is melted, the resulting water is discharged directly into the sewer system with approval from the Department of Environmental Protection. Lojan said the placement of the melters depends on which sites receive the necessary environmental clearances.
The city last carried out a full-scale deployment of the snow-melting tubs in February 2021, after a powerful nor’easter blanketed New York with repeated rounds of heavy snow.
Sanitation officials also noted that the equipment was used on a more limited basis in February 2022.
Winter Storm Fern dumped close to 15 inches of snow in some neighborhoods, including 11.4 inches in Central Park and 14.9 inches in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan.
It marked the first time since 2021 that a single storm brought more than a foot of snow to the city.
The eight snow melters currently in use are part of a fleet of 27 owned by the Department of Sanitation and are positioned in Inwood and lower Manhattan, Orchard Beach in the Bronx, East New York and Red Hook in Brooklyn, Maspeth and Queensboro Hill in Queens, and South Beach in Staten Island.
Lojan said residents should expect to see the machines operating in neighborhoods for the next “several weeks.”
He added that another potential snowstorm forecast for the upcoming weekend could extend how long the melters remain in use.
“It depends on this weekend’s storm how much progress we make in the next few days,” the commissioner said.
“Obviously, we’re a little far out.”
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{Matzav.com}
