St. Joseph Public Works crews begin first snow response of the season
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- St. Joseph Public Works crews treated the roads with salt trucks throughout the day Monday.
The city declared Phase I, marking the season’s first snowfall, and it remains in effect throughout the winter.
According to the City of St. Joseph's website, two or more inches of snow are required to fall before plows can hit the roads. St. Joseph received about two inches of snow, according to KQ2 Chief Meteorologist Mike Bracciano.
Fourteen salt trucks treated the streets Monday, each dropping 800 lbs of salt per mile.
Jackson Jones, Superintendent of Streets and Infrastructure, said emergency snow routes take precedence when it comes to treating the roads.
“That would be the ones that what we're doing on the first wave would be emergencies,” he said. “That's trying to get where the emergency services can get to within two to three blocks of everybody. So it's mainly getting routes to the hospitals for every angle of town.”
Jones said crews must remain on the emergency routes until it stops snowing.
“So potentially we'll still be on the emergency till five. Then we'll start on the secondary routes and then finally the district routes,” Jones said. "It could take up to three days, 36 hours if we're just salting and not plowing to hit every route in town.”
Jones said drivers need to give salt trucks plenty of space on the road.
“The back of that truck does have rock salt being thrown off the back of it, and you don't want that pepper in your car. So stay away from them. Give them plenty of room,” he said. “Just like your normal driving in slick weather, you want to stay back, you know, get plenty of room, give yourself time to get where you need to go. Drive slow and cautious”.
Jones said patience is an important detail when traveling in inclement weather.
“You have plenty of follow room, drive slow, have a lot of awareness of what's going on around you and drive carefully,” he said.
During a weather event, crews work two 12-hour shifts, with the shift change at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
