By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph crews acted quickly to treat busy streets and roads Monday in preparation for Tuesday's winter storm.
St. Joseph city street crews spent the day Monday pre-treating streets with a salt brine/beet juice mixture. St. Joseph Streets and Infrastructure supervisor Keven Schneider said Tuesday that Emergency Snow Routes were in good condition for the morning commute.
"We came in (Monday) and pre-treated emergency and secondary routes with the salt brine and sugar beet molasses mix," Schneider said. "It really helped in the morning. We've been spot checking the routes for areas that might slick up a little bit, but that pre-treatment really helped."
As the day and the weather progresses Tuesday, crews will be monitoring conditions and responding accordingly. Schneider said crews have already started plowing and treating residential streets.
Buchanan County and areas to the north and west are under a Winter Storm Warning until 6 a.m. Wednesday. The St. Joseph area could see 2-4 inches of snow and up to a half-inch of ice accumulation.
Precipitation is expected to transition to all rain by late Tuesday afternoon, which Schneider said will help a great deal with road conditions.
"The rain will melt everything and raise the pavement temperature a little quicker than normal," Schneider said. "It looks like, temperature wise, we're going to be okay until 3-4 a.m. (Wednesday)."
Schneider said crews will be on stand-by early Wednesday to treat any roads that refreeze.
With this being the first significant winter storm of the season, Schneider said that St. Joseph crews were well prepared.
"All of the equipment was ready to go all weekend just in case," Schneider said. "We were well prepared for this."