City crews prepared to respond to winter weather

City of Kansas City, Mo., crews assigned to arterial, primary and residential streets are prepared to respond to the winter weather that is forecast to move through the Kansas City area overnight. About 3-5 inches of snow is expected to fall in Kansas City, Mo.

Crews assigned to primary and arterial routes will mobilize beginning at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28 to clear City roads and bridges. 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.

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.

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.

To receive text and email notifications from the City, please sign up for our Nixle notification system atwww.kcmo.gov/nixle. Residents may also sign up by texting their zip code to "888777."

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.