Operations status
Normal operations. No winter event in progress. Trucks are staged and salt bins are full.
Updated
Northfield Township Road District
Snow & Storm
Alerts
We maintain 23 miles of road in the unincorporated areas of Glenview, Northbrook and Northfield. Sign up and we will tell you when trucks roll, how far we have gotten, and when your street is done.
- Salt trucks dispatched, with the time we started
- Progress through your section during the storm
- Overnight parking ban reminders, Nov 1 to Apr 1
- Flooding, downed limbs and road closures year-round
We send during storms and emergencies. Not weekly. Not marketing. You can unsubscribe from any message.
Get the alerts
No smartphone or prefer to talk to someone?
Monday–Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. We will add you over the phone.
Before you call anyone
Who plows your street?
Four different agencies plow inside Northfield Township, and the boundary is often the centerline of the road you live on. Type a street name to find out who to call.
Start typing. Results appear below as you type.
The full jurisdiction list
Some roads are maintained in part by the village they run through when an intergovernmental agreement is in effect. When a road appears in two places below, the split is by segment — call us and we will tell you which agency has your block.
Northfield Township Road District
Dedicated streets in unincorporated areas
If your street is in an unincorporated pocket and was dedicated to public use, it is ours. This is the bulk of the residential street mileage in the unincorporated township.
847.724.7055 Emergencies, day or night: 847.471.7055
Illinois Department of Transportation
State highways
- Willow Road
- Waukegan Road
- Dundee Road
- Pfingsten Road (south of Highland, north of Maria, Northbrook)
- Milwaukee Avenue
- Central (from the western limits of Glenview)
- River Road
- Greenwood Road
- Dearlove Road
847.705.4222 Illinois Tollway: 800.865.5394
Cook County Transportation & Highways
High-volume county roads
- Lake-Cook Road
- East Lake Avenue
- Landwehr (south of Dundee)
- Lee Road (Walters to Dundee)
- Sanders Road
- Sunset Ridge (south of Skokie Blvd.)
- Techny Road (Shermer to Sanders)
- Walters (east of Waukegan; and between Pfingsten & Sanders)
- Central (from Greenwood west)
- Happ Road
- Wagner Road
- Harms Road
- Winnetka Road
847.827.1164 Check any road on the Cook County Viewer map — open Layers and tick “Highway System.”
Your village
All streets inside incorporated boundaries
- Northbrook 847.272.4711
- Glenview 847.724.1700
- Northfield 847.446.9200
Your homeowners association
Private, non-dedicated streets
If you live in an unincorporated subdivision with private streets, your association contracts its own plowing and pavement work. No public agency plows a private road. If you are not sure whether your street is dedicated, call us and we will check the plat.
What we aim for, and when we cannot
6:00a.m.
Our adopted goal is to have every Road District street cleared by 6 a.m., so residents have safe access at the start of the day.
Our first move in any storm is to dispatch every salt truck at once. Operators work pre-assigned sections continuously, and the foreman monitors conditions to decide when to stop. The goal at the end of every event is curb-to-curb, with corners pushed back and salted, so water drains and there is somewhere to put the next storm’s snow.
Allow about an hour between the call going out and the first truck reaching pavement. Crews load and fuel before they roll.
In a blizzard, the order changes
When a single event brings more than about 8 inches of wet snow with wind and drifting, or storms arrive faster than we can recover, the Highway Commissioner activates the emergency plan. Work then follows this order — residential streets come after emergency access is open.
- 1
Arterials and collectors
Thoroughfares used by police, fire and ambulance.
- 2
Essential services
Routes to hospitals, clinics, utilities, food and fuel, and schools.
- 3
Residential streets
Every remaining Road District street.
- 4
Widening and corners
Second pass for full width and pushed-back corners.
- 5
Sight lines
Cutting down piles over 3.5 feet at intersections — driver eye height.
During emergency operations, large equipment is staffed around the clock on two twelve-hour shifts.
Overnight parking ban
November 1 – April 1. No on-street parking between 2:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.
This applies whether or not snow is falling. A parked car forces the plow into the center of the road and leaves the parking lane, the curb and the drain inlet buried. Problem areas are enforced by the Cook County Sheriff’s Police, who also arrange any towing.
Alert subscribers get a reminder the night the ban starts and before major storms.
Five things that make a real difference
These are the habits that separate a block we can clear in one pass from one we have to come back to.
Shovel to the right
Stand at the end of your driveway facing the street and clear snow to the right side. The plow pushes snow to its right as it passes, so a pile on the left gets pushed straight back across your apron. Leaving a pocket upstream of your driveway gives that snow somewhere to go.
Wait for the last pass before the final dig-out
The ridge left across your driveway is called a windrow. It is not personal and there is no way to plow a street without creating one. Clearing your apron before we have made the final widening pass means doing it twice.
Adopt the hydrant on your block
Clear about three feet on all sides and a path to the street. A buried hydrant costs a fire crew minutes they do not have. If there is one near your house, it is the highest-value shoveling you will do all winter.
Keep the storm inlet open
The grate at your curb is what stops the thaw from ponding and refreezing across the road. Clearing the face of it after a storm prevents a sheet of ice on your own block.
Never push snow into the street
Snow from a private driveway placed in the roadway is a hazard and it refreezes into ruts. Put it on your own property, upstream of your driveway apron.
Check on the house next door
If a neighbor is older or lives alone, a cleared walk to the mailbox matters more than the driveway. We are surveying interest in senior transportation and assistance — if that would help someone on your block, tell us here.
Questions we get every winter
The plow filled in the driveway I just shoveled. Will you clear it?
We are not able to clear private driveway aprons — with 23 miles of road and a small crew, stopping at individual driveways would leave streets unplowed. The windrow is an unavoidable product of moving snow off the travel lane. Shoveling to the right of your driveway and waiting for the final pass is the best defense.
My mailbox was damaged. What now?
Report it to us and we will inspect. Our operators are instructed to use due diligence around mailboxes and to report any contact immediately. There is a difference between a box struck by equipment and one that failed under the weight of thrown snow, and the inspection determines which happened. See our mailbox replacement policy for the standard we work to. Reporting promptly, with a photo, helps considerably.
Why does my cul-de-sac take longer?
Cul-de-sacs, especially those with a landscaped center island, cannot be cleared in a single pass. Operators start at the center and work counter-clockwise to push snow outward, which is the only pattern that actually clears the bulb without stranding a mound in someone’s apron. It takes longer and it is worth doing correctly.
Why salt the road before it snows?
Treating pavement ahead of accumulation stops the first layer from bonding to the road. Breaking that bond after it forms takes far more salt and far more passes. Getting ahead of a storm is the single cheapest thing we do, and it uses less chloride overall — which matters in a watershed that drains toward the Skokie Lagoons and the North Branch.
Who plows the state and county roads through our area?
IDOT and Cook County plow their own routes on their own schedules, and our crews are only authorized onto those roads at the Highway Commissioner’s direction. That is why a state highway can be clear while a side street is not, or the reverse. Use the lookup above and call the agency that holds the road.
What about the private street in my subdivision?
Private, non-dedicated streets are plowed under contract by the homeowners association, not by any public agency. If you are unsure which category your street falls into, call us at 847.724.7055 and we will look it up.
Report a road condition
For a Road District street. For state, county or village roads, use the numbers above.
Life-threatening emergency? Call 911. Do not use this page.