City street crews work proactively for winter weather

By Harry Loomis

St. Joseph was treated to some light flurries on Friday, and with the potential for more snow next week, the city’s streets and infrastructure department is staying prepared.

“If we had advance notice and there wasn’t going to be any rain precipitation,” said Jackson Jones, superintendent of streets and infrastructure. “We would probably try to start … treating with liquid … and a couple of days in advance might give us time to do the whole city.”

When the winter weather is minimal or preceded by rain, little to no road preparation needs to be done.

“If we were able to get the brine treatment down ahead of time, a half inch of snow would probably take care of itself with brine treatment,” Jones said. “We’ve found that a half inch or less, it burns off the rock salt.”

The department typically treats roads with rock salt treated with beet juice. At full staff, there are typically 16 daytime workers and 14 nighttime.

With so much experience treating streets, the protocol for light snow management has become pretty standard. When it comes to needing a snow plow, the amount of snow and temperature are among the factors to be considered.

However, the primary routes stay the same, as there are priorities around town.

“If it says we got 4 inches, nothing might have accumulated on the street because our treatments … have probably melted it off,” said Jones. “We start seeing a couple of inches or more on the street. That’s when we go into the phase two and three, plows on and we start going on.”

In the wake of winter weather, AAA recommends having several essential items in the car, including a first aid kit, a shovel, ice scrape and rock salt.