City crews prepared to respond to winter storm

City of Kansas City, Mo., crews assigned to arterial, primary and residential streets are prepared to respond to the winter storm that is forecast to move through the Kansas City area overnight. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for the metro area beginning at midnight tonight to midnight tomorrow night. Up to 10 inches of snow are expected to fall in Kansas City, Mo. To learn additional updates as they become available, along with a GPS snow plow map, please visit www.kcmo.org/snow.

Crews began applying salt brine on the City's primary and arterial roads on Tuesday, Feb. 19 in the evening. Crews are currently working nonstop to treat the roads and will switch from road treatment to plow operations as snow begins to accumulate overnight. Residential snow operations will begin at 6 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 21.

The City has approximately 6,400 lane miles of pavement in its street system. In order to keep traffic moving throughout the City during a winter weather event, the City's snow plan prioritizes plowing into two types of snow routes: primary/arterial routes and residential routes.

On primary and arterial routes, the City's Public Works, Parks and Recreation and Water Services departments collaborate on removing snow and ice from approximately 2,400 lane-miles of pavement and apply salt as needed.  On primary and arterial streets, crews plow curb-to-curb and work around the clock.

On residential snow routes, City crews using smaller trucks work 12-hour shifts during daytime hours to provide a passable lane by plowing and applying salt on intersections, hills and curves. As possible, crews will widen the passable lane, which may still have some snow pack due to low pavement temperatures.

Please note, the Missouri Department of Transportation plows highways. Many streets in Kansas City are actually part of the highway system and plowing for them is MoDOT's responsibility. These streets include: Bannister Road, Noland Road, Vivion Road, Antioch Road and part of Independence Avenue. The telephone number for MoDOT is 816-622-6500.

In residential areas, residents are asked to park off-street if possible. If they must park on-street, the following parking practice is being requested:

-On streets that run north/south, please park on the west side of the street.
-On streets that run east/west, please park on the north side of the street.

While this is a voluntary action, should the City need to declare a state of emergency due to extreme snow totals, cars parked on streets that do not comply with this configuration will be subject to ticketing and towing.

Parking cars off-street during snow plow operations greatly enhances the ability of snow plows to remove snow, especially in cul-de-sacs, dead ends and narrow streets. When on-street parking obstructs the ability of a snow plow to safely proceed, it is possible that the street will be skipped.

Whenever it snows, residents wanting to report slick spots or missed streets to the City's 311 Call Center are advised that while crews are running assigned snow routes, it is assumed that all streets are slick. Only after snow has stopped falling and all snow routes have been run does the City's 311 Call Center accept requests for slick spots and missed streets.

For winter 2012-2013, the City has expanded its GPS capability to capture activity for all City snow plows throughout the City. Please visit www.kcmo.org/snow to view the GPS snow plow map and other snow-related updates.

Media inquiries about ice and snow removal should be directed to Sean Demory, public information officer for the Public Works Department, at 816-513-0059.