Columbia, Jefferson City crews remove piles of snow from downtown areas

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The City of Columbia is removing truckloads of snow from downtown after streets were covered in about 10 inches of snow over two days this week.

As the city is removing snow they are taking it to University Village near the M-K-T trail and once the city dumps the snow at the dumping site the environment does the rest.

The city's Public Works Department began using 25 dump trucks to remove the snow piles Thursday as plowing operations continued on residential streets.

The city says at this point they have about 98% of residential streets rendered to a passable state.

This fiscal year the Columbia City Council approved more than two million dollars for supplies and materials to help with street and sidewalk snow removal.

John Ogan with Columbia Public Works said, "larger trucks like our double axle trucks and single axle trucks, these are very large vehicles and then we have a lot of regular one ton pick-up trucks."

In Jefferson City, crews were also working Friday to remove loads of snow from downtown. Work was expected to take place until noon, with crews blocking city streets as they move through the area.

The large piles in commercial districts were left after crews worked around the clock to plow snow off the streets.

Columbia's Public Works also said Friday that sunshine and rising temperatures will help road treatments work better.

Ogan said, "That warming effect is activating the salt, your gonna start to see the roads start to slush up and the snow start to fluff up a bit."

Before a major storm, the city checks pavement temperatures to decide on how it will pre-treat the roads and if pre-treating the roads will be beneficial. Treatments vary from storm to storm.

The City of Columbia has up to 5,000 tons of dry salt which is mined in Hutchinson, Kansas. The salt the city uses is a clean, natural substance, free of any man-made chemicals. Columbia Works says it limits the amount of salt they use.

"First it's gonna end up in the streams and become an environmental hazard and we don't want that and secondly we are going to go through more salt and put more strain on the budget," Ogan says.

Treating the roads with salt can be effective but also comes with limitations when the road temperature drops below 20 degrees.

Liquid brine is a saltwater solution that can be mixed with dry salt that will enhance melting.

Another material used by the city is natural beet juice, which increases the stickiness of the liquid brine used to pre-treat roads before a predicted snowfall. Beet juice helps the salt brine bond to the road surface.

"It has a little bit of a sticky element to it so that when we deploy it onto the streets it sticks to the street for a little bit longer so it's in place for when the snow and ice fall or started to form," Ogan said.

Columbia Public Works uses more than 40 pieces of equipment for snow removal, with 35 vehicles equipped with snow plows and salt spreaders.