Kalamazoo plows ready for first snowfall of the season
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — Just in time for the first major snow of the season, Kalamazoo’s Department of Public Services is ready to transition its trucks from fall to winter form.
“You see crews out doing leaf pickup. They use those same trucks for now snow removal,” Public Services Director James Baker told News 8. “There is a lot of work that went to putting what we call salt spreaders inside the trucks and then getting some of those trucks their wing blades put back on and getting them all ready for winter service.”
Several inches of lake-effect snow possible late Monday and Tuesday morning
The department has 6,000 tons of salt ready for area roadways to keep traffic flowing. And Baker says, whether snowfall is constant or coming in pockets like this system, the earlier, the better for the first layer of salt.
“Every event is different. Our goal is going to be to get material down on the roadway during the first event,” he explained. “So, when that snow really starts to pick up, we’re going to be out there.”
Where they target for additional treatment after that first layer depends on what they call “maintenance zones.”
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“We do have priority networks established, so we have hospital routes and major street priority routes where the crews and their trucks are going to stay on those routes,” Baker said. “Those main roads — like Howard Hill, Westnedge Hill, West Main Hill — they’re going to stay on those until they’re safe to go on the other roadways.”
Baker says additional trucks and drivers are standing by if more are needed. The city of Kalamazoo’s plows and salt trucks are responsible for all public streets within city limits except I-94. That and other major highways are overseen by the Michigan Department of Transportation, whose spokesman told News 8 their trucks are ready to respond.
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