Jefferson City plow crews prepare for incoming snow

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Jefferson City's Public Works department is equipped with 24 plow trucks "ready to go" for the forecasted snow.

Britt Smith, the Jefferson City Public Works operations division director said when temperatures near that freezing mark, he will have a crew of supervisors out monitoring the roads determining when to bring in their plow crews.

"Each plow driver is assigned a zone, they're responsible for taking care of all the roads within that zone," Smith said. "Within each zone, there are priorities within that zone depending on the type of storm, we start with the highest priority first."

Smith said their team is comprised of 24 plow trucks, three supervisors plus a seven-person central maintenance division, a three-person crew at the airport and a parking division.

"This is a major operation of roughly 50 people total," Smith said. "Our goal is once precipitation starts we will run continuous operations meaning 24 hours a day seven days a week if necessary until we have the roads cleared curb to curb."

Smith said this is a different event then mid-Missouri would typically see so pre-treatment is not an option.

Smith said the first round of snow is the most dangerous.

"As everybody knows that's been out and driven in snow, that first half-inch is some of the slickest snow you can get, once you get 2 or 3 inches built upon it it's a little bit easier to drive but that first half inch is very slick."

Smith said if the city sees typical snowfall, all it takes is a few hours for his team to get the roads back to normal.

"Typical snow that we see, 2-4 inches, once the snow stops we can have every road in town cleared within 2-4 hours."

Smith said he wants the public to know, one thing they can do to help his plow crews out is to make sure to turn on their headlights. He said it makes it safer for plow trucks on the road.