Snow Removal
Rapid City Public Works
Street Division
Roadway Snow Removal Hotline: (605) 394-4152, during regular business hours.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
During an active snow event, the City uses a targeted response, based on the adopted Plowing Policy. Once the snow has stopped falling, crews will turn their attention to the remaining areas of the City that still need attention.
Please report roads that need additional snow removal to our hotline at (605) 394-4152 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For sidewalk snow removal issues or complaints, please contact the Code Enforcement Division at (605) 355-3465.
Winter weather can make driving dangerous and create challenges for everyone – drivers, homeowners, pedestrians, emergency workers, and snow removal teams. The Rapid City Street Division works hard to make sure the roads are safe and clear for everyone during the winter season.
While many drivers start getting ready for winter in late fall, the Street Division begins its work right after the last winter. We look at all of our plans, equipment, and materials to make sure we are ready for the next winter season. Our goal is simple: to make the roads as safe as possible using the resources we have. This includes sanding, salting, snow plowing, snow removal, or a combination of these services.
Rapid City has about 350 miles of multi-lane streets and 40 miles of alleys, which adds up to around 1,500 lane miles of road. Since it’s not possible to clear everything at once, we prioritize which areas to treat first. In emergency situations, these priorities might change.
Winter Driving Tips:
- Practice your winter driving skills and adjust to the road conditions.
- Keep your car in good shape by checking your tires, battery, and windshield wipers.
- Give yourself extra time when driving in winter weather.
- Don’t push snow into the street when clearing your driveway.
- Park off the street during snowstorms so plows can work more efficiently.
Snow Policy Overview:
The Street Division’s goal is to make the roads as safe as possible, in the most cost-effective way. We do this by using sand, salt, and liquid deicers to treat the roads, with different products applied to different areas based on priority.
Sanding and Chemical Treatment:
- Priority 1: Main roads, emergency routes, steep streets, busy intersections, and areas that are especially dangerous.
- Priority 2: Smaller roads, streets near schools, and residential streets.
- Priority 3: Residential streets (only treated when needed).
We try to use less material on flat streets unless the weather makes it necessary.
Plowing Policy:
Snow plowing is divided into three levels:
- Level A (2-4” of snow): Main roads, emergency routes, steep streets, and busy intersections, including downtown snow removal during active snowfall. Crews will move into the other areas when the snow fall ends.
- Level B (4-6” of snow): Smaller roads and high-traffic residential streets, plus Level A areas and continued downtown snow removal during active snowfall. Other areas will be tackled after the snow stops.
- Level C (6+” of snow): All other streets, with help from contractors to clear roads faster.
We do not clear driveway entrances during regular plowing unless there are special circumstances. Property owners are responsible for clearing snow from sidewalks next to their properties. However, the city will clear sidewalks on public bridges, large streets in residential areas, and school routes, but only after the streets are plowed.
To make sure the streets drain properly, we plow all the way from curb to curb. If plowing blocks your mailbox, we’ll remove enough snow so mail delivery can continue if the plowing was done incorrectly.
Snow Removal in Downtown and Other Key Areas:
The city will remove snow in the downtown area and other designated places, as required by the city code. This work is usually done at night to avoid heavy traffic.
If a severe storm is declared (Weather Condition 3), the Mayor or their designee may declare a Snow Emergency. This means all available city workers will be called in to help clear the roads as quickly as possible.
By following these guidelines and working together, we can help make Rapid City streets safer for everyone during the winter months.
REMINDER TO DRIVERS: With each winter season and storm event, City officials provide the following guidance: drive with caution, slow down and drive the conditions not the speed limit, be prepared for changing road conditions throughout Rapid City, allow extra time to reach your destination, clear off your car before traveling, remove snow and ice from sidewalks immediately after a snow event)
WINTER PREPAREDNESS: It's been more than 10 years ago, the Winter Storm Atlas (October 3-5, 2013) taught us that a major snow event can hit our area when we least expect it. City officials provide important messages and advice when preparing for the winter season, and the anniversary of Winter Storm Atlas is a good time to make those preparations. Here is winter season advice from City/County officials:
**Fire Chief Jason Culberson says make sure to have the ice scraper, check your tire pressure and quality of tires, make sure you have a set of jumper cables, check the antifreeze and quality of your battery, etc. Get in the habit of keeping a sufficient amount of fuel in your vehicle.
**Street Department Superintendent Jesse Rieb advises drivers to make sure to remove ice and snow from the windshields, hood and top of the car; and with any storm, drive with caution, drive the road conditions and not the speed limit, always be prepared for changing road conditions even in different areas of the community, and allow additional time to reach your destination.
**Pennington County Emergency Management officials say the Atlas anniversary is a good opportunity to build a winter travel survival kit for your car and assemble items in your home should you be homebound for a few days due to winter weather or an extended power outage. Get the snow blower fired up and find the snow shovel. Pennington County Emergency Management advises a winter storm kit for your car should include: sleeping bags or blankets, matches and candles, winter clothing, food, first-aid kit, pocket knife, flashlight and radio with extra batteries for each, a bag of sand and shovel, tire chains and tools, windshield scraper, battery jumper cables, and two coffee cans. Small supplies can be kept in the coffee cans and when stranded, one can be used for personal sanitation needs and the other to burn the candles in for heat. When burning a candle, leave a down-wind window slightly open for air circulation and ventilation. Carbon monoxide poisoning can happen without the victim being aware of it until it's too late.
If a major storm is forecasted, make time to prepare around your home: remember to collect foodstuffs, medication, diapers and baby/infant food, and pet supplies. Have a working radio, flashlights/lanterns/candles where they can be easily accessed if a power outage should occur.
**Now would be a good time to inquire with a neighbor or make arrangements for snow removal around your home if you are unable to remove snow due to age or disability. Or check with an elderly or disabled neighbor if you can assist them with their snow removal.
Throughout the winter season, the City will be sharing weather-related messages and information from Emergency Management, as well as fire, police and street departments.
SNOW REMOVAL POLICY (STREETS): The goal is to provide the motorist with the safest driving surface possible, in an efficient and economical manner, with the resources available. Initial service of streets during a snow/ice incident will be applications of sand, salt, liquid de-icer or a combination of these products. To reduce the amount of material used, flat level streets are not treated unless a special situation should exist. Other accepted chemicals may be used for maximum effectiveness.
Streets will be treated in the following order of priority:
*All arterial and emergency routes along with those streets having steep grades or other hazardous geometry and major intersections. Examples include Fifth Street to Rapid City Regional Hospital, Omaha Street, Mount Rushmore Road, Fairmont Boulevard, Saint Patrick Street, Jackson Boulevard, Sheridan Lake Road, Canyon Lake Drive.
*Collector and sub-collector streets and school routes. Street Department officials coordinate with school officials and if school is in session, school routes are prioritized
*Residential streets.
DOWNTOWN SNOW ALERT DESIGNATIONS: The City of Rapid City can issue a downtown snow alert under certain conditions during extreme snow events. The downtown snow removal core area is defined as West Boulevard to the west, Fifth Street to the east, Omaha Street to the north and Kansas City Street to the south.
The City's Public Works Director can declare a Snow Removal Alert in the downtown core area for snow to be cleared for the safe and orderly flow of traffic and for the safety, health and welfare of the general public. When a Snow Removal Alert is declared, any vehicle or trailer parked in the downtown core area from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. may be removed by the police department and the vehicle's owner or operator assessed a fine and charges for towing and storage of the vehicle.
The City will use traditional media sources as well as the City's social media platform including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to relay messages.
SNOW AND ICE REMOVAL (SIDEWALKS): Per City Ordinance 12.12.090, it is the duty of the homeowner to keep the sidewalk(s) fronting or abutting a lot, parcel or plot of ground free from snow and ice at all times. When it is impossible to take the snow and ice from the walk by reason of it be being frozen to the sidewalk, the owner or occupant shall sprinkle or spread suitable material to prevent the walk from becoming slippery and dangerous to travel. Sidewalks that are not kept free from snow and ice are declared a nuisance, and upon the failure, neglect or refusal to comply, the owner or occupant may be held in violation. If the snow and ice is not removed within 24 hours, the City can have the area cleared of snow and ice with the costs assessed to the property.
**People who experience difficulties shoveling or maintaining their sidewalks during the winter due to a disability, age, etc. are advised to make preparations before the winter season to line up assistance for such tasks.
TEXT ALERT MESSAGING SYSTEM FOR PUBLIC: Rapid City and Pennington County will provide public impact messages using an upgraded notification system.
The notification system is a joint effort involving Pennington County, City of Rapid City, Rapid City Police Department, Pennington County Sheriff's Office, Rapid City Fire Department, Pennington County Highway and Pennington County Emergency Management in partnership with Everbridge Software Company.
Weather and emergency-related messages will be communicated through the Everbridge notification system. In recent years, the public could receive county and city alert messages on the 211 Helpline system.
"As we approach the winter, we encourage the public to consider re-subscribing to the new system or subscribing for the first time to the public impact text messages as a way of staying informed and receiving official notifications regarding incidents having public impact," said Alexa White, Deputy Director with Rapid City-Pennington County Emergency Management. "Messages sent will relate to accidents and infrastructure incidents that impact traffic flow, structure or grass fires causing traffic hazards or delays, weather-related no travel advisories or snow cleanup messaging. These events and others are useful to the public."
Subscribers to the system can text keywords to 888777 on their mobile devices to receive messages. Users can choose to receive any or all of four separate impact messages. Messages will be sent to a specific keyword depending on the location of the incident or event. City and county impact messages regarding snow operations or hazardous travel will be issued with the event names 'RCSnow' for Rapid City and 'PCSnow' for Pennington County. These messages could include the issuance of a downtown snow alert, the closures of specific facilities such as City Hall, County Administration Offices, the City Landfill, Library, Airport or Rapid Transit Services, or travel advisories in the county and community issued by authorities.
In addition, subscribers can choose to receive text alerts entitled 'PCImpact' and 'RCImpact'. City impacts include events such as major accidents with road closures, utility line failure resulting in traffic impacts, or an alert issued by the Rapid City police or fire departments impacting traffic or neighborhood residents. Pennington County impact events include traffic impacts due to an accident, wild fire with evacuations or closures, law enforcement events requiring public notification.
Text one or more of the following keywords to '888777':
RCSnow: Includes messages about downtown snow alert declarations, closures of City operations such as Landfill, Library, Rapid Transit, Airport and City Hall.
PCSnow: Includes travel advisories in the county, closures of county administrative offices, etc.
RCImpact: City impacts such as major accidents w/road closures, utility line failures with traffic impacts, police and fire alerts impacting traffic or specific neighborhood residents.
PCImpact: County events could include accidents with traffic impacts, fire with evacuations or closures, law enforcement events requiring public notification.
This information and instructions can be found online at https://www.pennco.org/textalerts
FUN FACTS:
*The City Streets Department has over 50 pieces of equipment related to snow removal. Combined with resources from the City's Parks Department, the City's Solid Waste Division and Rapid City Regional Airports, there are over 100 pieces of equipment that can be utilized at various City properties during a particular snow event.
*The City is divided into 19 different snow routes.
*There are over 400 miles of streets in Rapid City. Most of the streets are multi-lane with two, three and four-lanes of traffic. Stretching out the lanes and the 400 miles expands considerably. During a particular snow event, City crews can be traveling a distance from Rapid City to California and back.
*No snow 'event' is the same. Each event brings its own unique weather characteristics. City officials begin preparing for each snow event days in advance.
*Crews keep equipment maintained well in advance of the winter season. Chemical compound is purchased months in advance.
Here are important messages from:
*RAPID CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Fire Chief Jason Culberson asks the following from residents and visitors of Rapid City and the surrounding area: When advisories are issued, like “no travel advised”, please heed the warning for your own safety and of those that count on you. If you don’t need to go out, please don’t. If you must travel, be prepared. A winter travel kit in your vehicle can come in handy even if you are traveling in and around the City. (extra clothing, water, blankets, food, shovel, ice scraper, phone charger, etc). Maintain your vehicle for winter travel. (tires, wipers, battery, antifreeze, etc.)
*RAPID CITY REGIONAL AIRPORT: If the airport is closed, personnel will alert the media. If the runway is closed, updates are provided through their website and social media. Airlines may sometimes cancel or delay flights based on conditions even if the runway is open so airport officials always recommend the public to check with the specific airline regarding flight status.