Thursday, December 12, 2013

City crews ready to respond to freezing rain, snow tomorrow

Residents urged to drive with caution, as roads will be slick

City of Kansas City, Mo., snow crews are monitoring and preparing for a wintery mix of rain, sleet and snow expected to move into the Kansas City areatomorrow morning. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for the Greater Kansas City region from Friday, Dec. 13 at noon throughSaturday, Dec. 14 at 9 a.m. Read snow updates at
www.kcmo.org/snow.

Light freezing rain is expected to occur Friday morning, transitioning to rain around noon. A change to snow will likely take place around the afternoon rush hour, with heavier snow falling in the evening and overnight. A total of 3-6 inches of snow is expected to accumulate.

Motorists are advised to drive with caution, as roads may become very slick and visibility may diminish during periods of heavy snow. Please review the City's snow safety tips to prepare:
http://kcmo.org/CKCMO/NewsArchives/120413B.

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

Crews assigned to primary/arterial routes will report to work Friday, Dec. 13 at 7:30 a.m. They have split into two 12-hour shifts to provide around the clock coverage. Crews on residential snow routes will be on alert Friday, Dec. 13 and will begin plowing when the snow stops during daylight hours.

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. These 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. In the event of severe snow, cul-de-sacs and dead ends will be plowed after arterial, collector and through residential streets. This ensures that City crews may use their resources most effectively.

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. A few of 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.

When snow depths exceed a couple of inches, residents are advised that parking cars off-street during snow plow operations greatly enhances the ability of snow plows to remove snow, especially in cul-de-sacs and dead end streets. Residents parking on signed Emergency Snow Routes should be prepared to find alternate parking locations to avoid vehicles being ticketed or towed.

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 (usually about 36 hours after snow stops falling).

Please visit
www.kcmo.org/snow to view the GPS snow plow map and other snow-related updates. To receive text and email notifications from the City, please sign up for our Nixle notification system at www.kcmo.org/nixle. Residents may also sign up by texting their ZIP code to "888777."

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