Change in road treatment comes to Kansas City as another winter storm rolls through
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Missouri and Kansas Department of Transportation crews aren’t worried about ice this week.
It won’t be getting warm enough for the snow to melt and then refreeze, so plow crews are changing their approach in how they treat roads as they also battle the bitter-cold temperatures at the same time.
With the temperature going down, more tires need to be pumped up.
“It was down to 18 and it’s supposed to be at 36,” Vincent Frazler of Jackson County told KCTV off Hwy 150. “So, I had to freeze my hands off to get some air.”
“Any time it gets this cold you got to check your tires to make sure,” Matthew Nelson said. “Because it will knock it down or you could run over something.”
Matthew Nelson came to Olathe from the Lake of the Ozarks to look at a new car. He’ll waste no time getting back because of what’s coming.
“We were thinking about that, so I came here early this morning so that way we can get back before it all came down,” Nelson explained.
The last six weeks have been busier than Jill Bruss can in her years with MODOT. Still, it’s good training for her new drivers.
“We had a lot of new drivers this year, so every storm gives those drivers new experience,” Bruss said. “You learn and you grow from it.”
Below-zero temperatures mean it’s less about the salt and more about plowing quickly because pre-treatment isn’t effective when it’s this cold.
The wind is going to blow any treatment off for starters, but when you get below zero, the salt doesn’t melt the snow. It’s kind of you know wasted.
With more focus on plowing, this tactic means drivers must increase the following distance when behind plows, especially on the interstate.
“We’ll have three different plows plowing together,” Bruss told KCTV. “And what that does is we’re able to clear the interstate in one .”
Local crews have similar plans.
As far as our salt stockpile, we are doing pretty good on material we have really good distributors who respond quickly to our needs. For this storm, we will deploy 42 drivers, that will be split into two 12 hour shifts to work 24 hours around-the-clock. First tackling our main thoroughfare routes followed up by secondary collector route. We will make a hard effort plowing until the snow stops falling, and we can restore traction to the roadway. Once those are completed, we will focus on neighborhood routes.
Johnson County Public Works is also in prep mode.
Public Works is planning to bring in its night shift at 8 p.m. Monday. Crews will work alternating 12-hour shifts until the roads are in good shape. As a reminder, Johnson County Public Works plows roads in the unincorporated part of the county. Please individual cities for information about plowing roads in those areas.
For the unincorporated areas, their process for plowing roads is:
- Arterial roads and those with hills, bridges, shaded driving surfaces or super-elevated curves receive priority.
- Crews will begin on collector roadways and residential streets once arterials are complete.
- Gravel roads will only be plowed when snow accumulations exceed three inches.
Every shift will also be fully staffed in every area KCTV reached out to.
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