By Aaron Mudd, CivicLex · October 14, 2026

During a Tuesday, October 13th presentation to Council's Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee, Councilmembers got their first look at the city's overhauled snow and ice plan.

The new plan comes after multiple challenging winter storms that the city has struggled to adequately respond to. It includes several operational fixes aimed at improving efficiency in treating and clearing roads during winter storms, along with more timely communication with residents about conditions and how the city is responding.

As they reviewed the plan during Tuesday's committee meeting, several Councilmembers wanted to know how the city will measure whether the changes are working.

You can read a summary of the new snow and ice control plan below:

City crews will move to treat priority roads earlier

Under its snow and ice control plan, Lexington prioritizes certain streets and roads based on traffic volume, with consideration given to public transportation access, emergency services and schools. The goal is that, when plows mobilize, all ranked streets will be cleared within 24 hours after the end of a snowstorm.

The plan describes ranked streets as follows:

• Rank 1 - Major arteries between downtown Lexington and New Circle Road, such as Main Street, Nicholasville Road and Richmond Road.
• Rank 2 - Major connecting streets. Examples include Red Mile Road, Lane Allen Road and Loudon Avenue.
• Rank 3 - Primary traffic routes through neighborhoods. These also include streets that are critical for schools to open.

This year's plan simplifies the ranking for streets, combining rank 3 and 4 streets. New this year, Lexington's roadway crews will apply some combination of rock salt, salt brine, or Beet Heat de-icer to all ranked roads within the first four hours of a storm response, with the goal of boosting its effectiveness over the course of the event.

"My expectation is that people who are on ranked roads will see a truck faster than they would have when they were a [rank 4 street]," Interim Commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works Charlie Martin told the Council.

However, the city's website states that only ranked roads will be plowed during a typical snow event. The city may plow additional roads during heavy snowfall, with an eye toward clearing routes to school, work and local services.

You can look up your street's ranking on a map hosted on the city's website here.

An updated Roadway Operations Manual included in the revised snow and ice plan explicitly states that Lexington doesn't have the resources to give every street the same level of service.

"Not every street in Fayette County will receive the same level of snow and ice removal," page 4 of the manual states. "There are not enough resources to fully treat every street and road."

You can read the full manual below:

The Roadway Operations Manual sets out a standard for "passable" streets, which it defines as "as a roadway that has been plowed to a level where at least one lane is accessible for a front wheel drive vehicle, allowing for reasonable speed below the normal limit."

It also states that "passable" does not mean bare or dry pavement, "snowpack or packed snow / ice may still exist on the road surface."

How residents can track plowing on city streets

Martin said Tuesday that the city hopes to have more data points going forward to help improve response efficiency over time.

Under the new plan, service requests will be funneled through the city's Lexcall 311 line, making tracking easier.

City and contractor trucks will also be outfitted with tablets that will show where trucks are and aren't. Residents will be able to track those plowing efforts, but Martin clarified during Tuesday's meeting that they will not provide real-time information about drivers for safety reasons. Instead, an online map will be made available to residents and updated periodically, indicating which roads have been cleared.