Portland, ME Snow Plow Routes
An independent model built from OpenStreetMap, not Portland’s own plow routes.
Portland, ME has a road network of 6,218 edges across 3 priority tiers: 1,425 arterial (23%), 604 collector (10%), and 4,087 residential (66%). The network spans 745.0 km of roads requiring service. PlowPath’s CARP solver achieved a best deadhead ratio of 13.6% with a 4-truck fleet, meaning only 13.6% of total travel was wasted repositioning. 12 solver configurations have been analyzed for this city.
Planned routes against nearest-street routing
| Trucks | Nearest street | Planned | Cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 250 mi (403 km) | 125 mi (201 km) | 50% |
| 2 | 297 mi (477 km) | 123 mi (199 km) | 58% |
| 3 | 345 mi (555 km) | 126 mi (202 km) | 64% |
| 4 | 362 mi (582 km) | 76 mi (123 km) | 79% |
| 5 | 351 mi (565 km) | 84 mi (136 km) | 76% |
| 6 | 487 mi (784 km) | 80 mi (130 km) | 83% |
Nearest-street routing sends each truck to the closest unplowed street: a baseline, not Portland’s own routes.
How many roads does Portland, ME need to plow?
Portland, ME’s network has 6,218 road edges totaling 745.0 km of roads requiring service. Roads are classified into 3 priority tiers: 1,425 arterial (23%), 604 collector (10%), and 4,087 residential (66%).
What is the optimal plow route for Portland, ME?
PlowPath’s CARP solver achieved a 13.6% deadhead ratio — the lowest wasted travel across 12 configurations tested. A lower deadhead ratio means less fuel, salt, and time spent repositioning between service passes.
How many snow plows does Portland, ME need?
That is Portland, ME’s call: it depends on how soon the town wants every street clear, and on the trucks and drivers it has. This page models Portland, ME with fleets of 1 to 6 trucks from one depot, using an assumed truck rather than the town’s own. Adding trucks mostly shortens the shift, while total blade-up changes far less; each run gives its modelled hours. The sensitivity analysis shows how fleet size moves them.