This City Is Literally Melting the Snow off Its Streets

One of the greatest things about winter is undoubtedly that first crisp snow of the season. Few views are more calming than looking out your window and seeing an untouched snow blanket in your yard. The people living in Holland, Michigan are all too familiar with snow.

The city of 33,500 receives an average of 75 inches (190 centimeters) of snow a year, with the season usually lasting from November through March although it has been known to snow in October and April too. That's a lot of snow.

After a big snowstorm, you would expect snowy or icy streets and sidewalks and a near-deserted downtown. But Holland found an ingenious way to keep its streets bustling under even the harshest winter conditions.

Thanks to a system of heated sidewalks and streets, the people who live in Holland's downtown have not had to deal with snow, slush, ice, or salt for two years and the downtown shopping district for many more years than that.

What began as an innovative good idea and a monetary long shot seems to have paid off for the city, big time, according to Michigan Radio.

The idea of a snowmelt system first came up in spring 1988 when Holland did a major renovation of its downtown area. “We had torn up our downtown from storefront to storefront. Sidewalks, curb, gutter, street - we were putting in all new infrastructure,” Former Mayor Al McGeehan (he was a city councilman then) told Michigan Radio.

“A leading industrialist here in Holland by the name of Edgar Prince who had seen this kind of a system used in some piazzas and plaza areas in Europe said, 'why don’t we dream? Could we, while the streets are torn up, could we put in a system that would use that heat energy to save us money from snow plowing and shoveling and all that?'," McGeehan said.

The snowmelt system was the first in the US and there were a lot of uncertainties including how to connect the streets to the nearby power plant on the shore of Lake Macatawa and the cost to build and maintain the system, McGeehan explained, but the city decided to take a chance and go for it.  

Piping the water that is being heated by the electrical power plant (and formally fed into the adjacent lake) turned out to cost a lot less than expected and the system was an instant hit. The snow-free streets and sidewalks helped revitalize the downtown shopping area.

Over the years, the system was expanded several times until all the heat from the power plant’s wastewater had been put to use.

Fast forward to 2016, when the plant running on coal was replaced by a cleaner, greener gas-fired power plant.

Dave Koster, Holland’s Board of Public Works’ General Manager, told Mlive that the system is melting snow for about 500,000 square feet (46,500 square meters) of Holland's downtown today. The new plant has the capacity to melt snow over five times that area.

The water used to melt the snow was heated by two gas-fired turbines and a steam engine to generate electricity for the city. The cooling water is diverted to the snowmelt pipes and is then returned to the power plant around 20 degrees cooler, according to Koster.

Cities in other parts of the world, including Reykjavik, Iceland, and Ninohe, Japan use geothermal heat to keep their roads free of snow while Oslo, Norway uses electric heating elements embedded in sidewalks. Several cities in Canada are also considering pilot programs.

Using natural or readily available resources for snow removal, make cities safer because they can function in even the worst weather and costs less to use than conventional snow removal methods.

A snowmelt system can also extend the life of the roads and sidewalks by eliminating the use of salt or deicing compounds.

No wonder this brilliant idea has been such a success.

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