The city thinks it is . . . here’s their update from yesterday:
SNOW PLOWING UPDATES
by Alan Schumacher, Streets Superintendent
posted November 22, 2010 1:26 PM
ARE WE READY FOR SNOW?This weeks long range forecast is calling for a little rain on Wednesday mixing with and changing over to a little light snow at the tail end of the storm over night Wednesday into Thursday, Thanksgiving morning. While forecasters are not calling for a large storm, we wanted to update all of you on some of the snow and ice related improvements we have been working on since last winter.
1. We have developed a list of major arterial streets that we will focus on salting and plowing when there are very large storms that cripple the City.
2. We have purchased 4 anti-icing liquid spray trucks that will be used prior to snow beginning to fall to apply liquid salt or other liquid de-icers to prevent snow from bonding to the pavement, which will use less salt overall and the main streets will become bare more quickly after a snowfall.
3. We will be purchasing additional liquid storage tanks as soon as 2011 arrives in order to stock organic de-icers, in addition to the salt brine we currently use, that are better for the environment and will work at lower temperatures than salt alone.
4. We have installed some in ground pavement temperature sensors that will feed us information as to what the air temperature is, the pavement temperature, the sub ground temperature and the amount of de-icer that is in solution on the pavement to better assist our decision making as to when de-icers should be applied or not.
5. We now have pavement temperature forecasting included in our winter weather forecasting service to again assist us in making better decisions on what type of de-icer should be used throughout a snow event.
6. We have improved our winter website where one can obtain all kinds of information about winter in Madison, not only from the standpoint of fighting snow but on the recreational opportunities available in Madison during the winter as well. Check the site out at www.cityofmadison.com/winter.
Will this make the difference this winter? I we’ll see . . . .
