Dieter Bohn, Head of Winter Services at Aachener Stadtbetrieb, is pleased that the first snow of the winter service season is already falling today, Wednesday, November 20. "This is a good time for us to test all processes once again. We are very well positioned with our winter service team and everything has worked smoothly so far. Everyone involved is very committed and working tirelessly." The first inspection drive took place at three o'clock this morning, followed by the second inspection drive at 10 o'clock.

"The snow is now here to stay, so we have declared full deployment," says Dieter Bohn. In concrete terms, this means that around 300 employees of the mechanical and manual winter service of Aachen's municipal services are required to ensure road safety throughout the city of Aachen.

The winter service is divided into three levels of urgency. In level one, 555 kilometers of main roads and through roads as well as access roads to hospitals, schools and fire stations, for example, must be kept clear and passable. Priority level 2 primarily includes connecting and residential roads, medium-frequented cycle paths and medium-frequented crosswalks. Priority level 3 includes purely residential and residential roads with a stretch of around 420 kilometers. "Only very small and narrow roads are in priority level 3, which takes a lot of time," explains Dieter Bohn.

The municipal company is also responsible for winter road maintenance on cycle paths. This applies to a route length of 90 kilometers in the city area in priority level 1, plus a further 25 kilometers in priority level 2.

Sidewalks, intersections and bridges cleared

In total, the employees ensure safe conditions on around 1,200 roads and road sections with a total length of around 1,500 kilometers. In addition to the mechanical winter service, many foot patrols are also out and about in the city. They ensure road safety at 223 intersections, 27 pedestrian zones, 183 crosswalks, 410 footpaths, 81 cycle paths, 18 bridges and 64 stairways. To ensure that everything runs smoothly, the municipal services ask that vehicles are parked as close to the edge of the road as possible in the evening so that the gritting vehicles can get through easily.

The respective property owners are responsible for removing snow and ice from sidewalks. The obligation to maintain sidewalks in winter also extends to public transport stops and school bus stops as well as all crosswalks. This includes traffic lights, crosswalks and dropped kerbs. At these points, the sidewalks must be cleared of snow up to the kerb and gritted in icy conditions to ensure that access and egress is as safe as possible.