City urges residents to keep off roads during weekend snowstorm

A winter storm likely to bring 6-10 inches of snow is predicted to affect the City of Kansas City, Mo., from Saturday, March 1 evening through Monday, March 3 at dawn. While it is snowing, the City urges residents to avoid driving and parking on the street when possible. This will enhance the snow plows' ability to efficiently and effectively remove snow in time for Monday morning's rush hour commute.

Residents who must park on-street are asked to follow the below parking practice.

-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.

When vehicles are parked on both sides of a narrow street, it may not leave enough space for a snowplow, and that street might get skipped.

City snow crews assigned to primary/arterial routes will deploy on Saturday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. and will work around the clock to clear snow. Residential snow crews will work in neighborhoods beginning on Sunday, March 2 at 7 a.m. Crews working on residential streets will plow from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The City plows about 6,400 lane miles of pavement in its street system - this is farther than plowing a two-lane road from San Diego to Boston!

To keep traffic moving during a winter weather event, the City 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. 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.

Residents parking on signed Emergency Snow Routes should be prepared to find alternate parking locations to avoid vehicles being ticketed or towed. A list of Emergency Snow Routes is located at http://kcmo.gov/publicworks/snow/emergency-snow-routes/.

Residents wanting to report slick spots or missed streets to the City's 311 Call Center should wait one business day after snow has stopped falling. 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.

Please visit www.kcmo.gov/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 the City's Nixle notification system at www.kcmo.gov/nixle. Residents may also sign up by texting their ZIP code to "888777."