LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — Tuesday evening road crews with Lee's Summit and Overland Park Public Works will begin to head out and treat roads, making sure they are safe come Wednesday morning for folks who have to leave home.
“Crews will be in tonight starting about 7:30 p.m., and we will start treating streets at that time.” Joshua Welge, manager of maintenance operation with the Department of Public Works in Overland Park, said.
Crews in both Lee’s Summit and Overland Park will use lots of different tools and chemicals to keep the roads clear; both departments said pre-treatment before a storm like this can be difficult.
“Anytime we put down a brine pre-treatment, once it starts snowing it’ll activate and start working on melting some of the snow, once we start getting a little bit of the accumulation, and balding it off we re-apply treatment as we go,” Shawn Graff, assistant director of Public Works operations in Lee’s Summit, said.
However, while it can be difficult to treat in freezing conditions, it does not impact the over all efficacy of the treatment, Welge said.
“It doesn’t necessarily effect our operation, and the materials are still effective when they are on the ice and snow. As long as the temperatures don’t drop and it gets below that effective range for whichever treatment that we are using,” he said.
With treatment plans in place, Overland Park said they’re starting with residential areas first, then moving into what they call "priority routes."
“We'll do what we call our 'priority streets,' which are out throughout break streets, our main streets and the streets that collect and distribute all of the local residential streets," Weldge said. "We will do that because as the snow starts falling and accumulating heavily, those streets become a priority for plowing."
Welge said the order in which streets are plowed impacts which ones they try to pre-treat.
“It’ll be a while before we can get back to the residential to start plowing them, so we want to make sure we get those treated, because that’s really going to help us out in the long run when we do eventually get back to residential,” he said.
On the other hand, Lee's Summit Public Works said they plan to start with what they call "primary routes" first.
“Primary routes, those are our large four lanes routes. They have the high speed limit, they have the traffic signals, and that’s where you’re going to see your police department, your fire station, your hospitals," Graff said.
After they have completed their primary routes, Lee’s Summit crews plan to move into what they call "secondary routes" and "residential areas."
"The secondary routes, those are typically residential routes, those are the main cut through to residential neighborhoods. Once the primary and secondary routes are done we try to have every house in Lee’s Summit within a quarter mile of those roads," Graff said.
In order to help crews out, departments are asking that people move their cars off the street to ensure they can easily treat roads, plow snow and pass through neighborhoods.
