MoDOT to skip pretreatment, moving to snow removal as soon as weather hits

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Road preparations for the incoming winter storm look different than usual at the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Starting Tuesday, crews will remain on the roads until the winter storm moves out sometime Wednesday. But this will require a switch in how they’re tackling the roads.

To start, crews are focusing on rainy conditions and clearing debris from streets and drains. Once the snow moves in, they will switch to removal operations.

You may notice there’s no road treatment in that plan. MoDOT spokesperson Brook Rohlfing says with the unusual conditions between rain and snow, salt isn’t helpful.

“It’s not really effective in these kinds of conditions; we’re gonna see this rain changing over into snow, so there’s not a way to keep the treatment on the roadways when it’s washing away all day,” she said.

This has not been typical all winter, and neither has this week in general. Rohlfing says crews have been tackling all different kinds of projects this week that usually have days or even weeks of transition.

“[Crews] may have pothole patching on Monday, monitoring roadways for rain and flooding and drain clearing on Tuesday and, then Wednesday morning moving back into snow operations so it is the wackiest week for us,” she said. “They’ve done a great job of keeping up with all of those different challenges and turning around equipment as quickly as they have to get ready for the next event.”

MoDOT has a traveler map available to check roadway conditions before you head out the door.

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