Discover Holland Michigan 2022 Visitors Guide

SNOWMELT SYSTEM

Boileau Communications

Since 1988, residents and visitors have enjoyed snow-free streets and sidewalks in downtown Holland throughout the winter season.

There is no salting, no plowing, no slipping and no sliding!

As a much-appreciated innovation, Holland’s snowmelt system has been expanded several times beyond the traditional downtown footprint to include the market area at the Holland Civic Center Place, the sidewalks to Herrick District Library and the ramps to the parking deck on 7˚th Street. This waste energy also heats the entire Holland Civic Center Place, and Hope College is expanding this technology to its own campus. In the dead of winter, residents and guests still enjoy sure-footed jogging, dog-walking and downtown explorations.

Thanks to the Holland Board of Public Works snowmelt system, waste energy from power generation is captured to heat water which is circulated through 190 miles of tubing laid underneath downtown streets and sidewalks. The snowmelt system is a closed system, meaning it circulates the same water over and over again. Pumping over 4,700 gallons of water per minute at 95˚F, this system can melt about one inch of snow per hour at 20˚F with winds of 10 mph. It provides approximately 600,000 square-feet of heated sidewalks and streets and is the largest publicly-owned snowmelt system in North America.

Learn more at cityofholland.com/879/snowmelt-system

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