Columbia begins pretreating roads, Jefferson City will not ahead of snow
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Jefferson City and Columbia's public works have crews ready for the winter weather heading to Missouri Thursday.
Public Works are responsible for plowing roads within the city. spokespersons from both departments said their crews are ready to clear the streets ahead of the storm despite an ongoing battle with short staffing.
"Staffing is an issue for a lot of us as you know," Britt Smith, operation division director for Jefferson City Public Works, said. "We're fortunate right now, we've been able to move some staff around and we are 100% staffed as the storm comes," Smith said.
Columbia Public Works Spokesperson John Ogan said Columbia has a 30-person crew ready to come in at 5 a.m.
"That does include a lot of people from other departments," Ogan said.
Both cities said they have plenty of salt in their salt domes to kick off the first possible big snowstorm of the season.
Smith said Jefferson City has made the decision to hold off on pretreating roads to prevent any snow from melting and then having the ability to refreeze, while Columbia has already started its pretreatment process.
"Right now we're not planning on doing pretreatment, and the reason for that is with this artic blast coming through our fear is that we would actually begin to get a melt, and then as the temperatures got down into the teens and below that would just freeze and turn to ice," Smith said.
"On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we were putting down salt brine and salt, especially on some of the trouble areas," Ogan said. "Like bridges, hills, curves, and intersections."
In both cities, priority roads will be the first to be treated, followed by second- and third-priority roads. First-priority roads include roads that connect the public to infrastructures like schools and hospitals.
Columbia has emergency snow routes, which are included with priority roads.
"We ask folks to not park on the priority roads when the snow reaches two inches," Ogan said.
You can find out when the snow reaches two inches, and when you can resume parking there on its website. You can also sign up for alerts including bus route delays and cancellations.
Columbia's Water and Light spokesman Matthew Nestor said they are ready to help where they can as well.
"We have crews ready for any immediate outages," Nestor said. "We'll take care of anything immediately, and for widespread outages, everybody is on call."
Nestor said heavy snow and winds can cause down power lines and advises anybody who may experience a power outage to contact them at 875-2555.
Ogan, Smith, and Nestor all advise Mid-Missouri residents to avoid traveling during the winter weather if it is at all possible.
Ogan said if you do have to travel, his snow plow drivers ask that you keep your headlights on and give them plenty of distance between you and the vehicle in front of you.
Road conditions and other information can be found at:
