How Snow Removal Work Was Carried Out in Yerevan on January 23: Areyan Clarifies

Kamo Areyan, an advisor to the Mayor of Yerevan, detailed the intensive snow removal operations that took place in the capital on January 23, reminding that the precipitation started at 10 AM and continued until late evening.

According to him, "As of 10:30 AM on January 23, all vehicles of the RAESM were fully stationed in the administrative districts, loaded with salt and sand, in accordance with the previously developed deployment scheme: 49 vehicles (37 multifunctional large and 12 small vehicles)." Areyan also noted that the Yerevan Greenery SNCO was mobilized simultaneously.

He stated that the work commenced around noon. "2-3 hours later, I was provided with an electronic diagram by Mr. Katvalyan showing the location of each vehicle, and thus the work continued until late evening. In the morning, the staff of the Greenery SNCO was also mobilized to clean all underground and above-ground crossings, as well as the staircases leading to buildings and parks," he added.

According to Areyan, a total of 137 units of equipment were involved, of which 107 were from the RAESM and 30 were from various functional structures. During these two days, 650 workers were engaged from the Greenery SNCO.

"On the night of January 23 to 24, all machinery went out to the streets and treated all the roads. By January 24, all of the capital's central and partially secondary streets had been completely cleared of snow and ice cover," he said.

Speaking about the challenges, Areyan mentioned that almost the entire area of the capital recorded traffic jams on January 23, but the main difficulties were in the Kentron administrative district. "We discussed the causes related to RAESM. My suspicions were correct that the equipment entered late; indeed, there were late entry hours due to the intensity of traffic. The mechanisms of RAESM vehicles simply could not maneuver through the traffic, and after 2 PM we had to appeal to the patrol service, which started to open a pathway for our vehicles, allowing them to treat the streets with salt and sand. This took about 6 hours, from around 2:30-3:00 PM until 9:00-9:30 PM in Kentron. By 7:30-8:00 PM, Nor Norq, Avan, Kanaker-Zeytun, and the northern part of Arabkir were completely cleared; however, the problem remained in Kentron with ongoing traffic jams," he said.

In response to residents' complaints, Areyan emphasized that intensive work had been carried out, but the traffic jams in the Kentron administrative district somewhat hindered the process. He also reported, "We used 1000 tons of a salt and sand mixture over the two nights. This is in contrast to the 10,000 tons used from December 27 to January 23. In previous years, the same time period barely saw 5-6 thousand tons, even during the intensive season."