Kansas City MO Mayor Quinton Lucas, along with City Manager Brian Platt and Public Works Director Michael Shaw, gave an update on road treatment city wide this afternoon at the city’s salt barn at the Public Works facility off Chouteau Trafficway and Municipal Avenue.
The Public Works facility off Chouteau is a one stop shop for crews to cycle through and fill up with ice melt, top off fuel, and take a quick break before heading back out on the streets. During the roughly 40-minute press event, dozens of trucks came through, refilled, and returned to their respective routes.
With the backdrop of a mountain of calcium chloride, City Manager Brian Platt thanked crews for their ongoing efforts. “A big thank you to every single staff member and colleague of ours that has joined the operation over the last 36 plus hours,” Platt said. “We started this operation before the first snowflakes even fell to make sure that our roads were pre-treated, and it made it for a very successful day today as right now, a lot of our streets are bare pavement … clean and clear.”
Public Works Director Michael Shaw noted that more than half the city’s arterial streets are clear and now crews will be focused on going deeper into neighborhoods to hit the secondary and side streets.
“We’re going to continue to be in full force, getting the rest of the streets cleared, and continue to make these streets that we have cleared safe,” Shaw said.
Shaw quickly followed up advising residents to watch for slick spots and potential black ice conditions as temperatures continue to slide below freezing. Roughly 285 vehicles have been mobilized for this storm for street treatment and snow removal.
Mayor Quinton Lucas added that trash would be on a holiday schedule again this week and that additional bags would be allowed due to the delay. “The reason that we have that done, of course, is to make sure that our crews are able to address the winter storm itself,” Lucas said. “But we recognize that in some of your neighborhood streets and others you may still not have been hit,” Lucas added. “As the temperatures go down, they may get slicker. Our crews will be out so long as we’re facing this winter weather event.”
City Manager Brian Platt also said if slick spots are seen, or residents see streets that need additional attention, to use the City’s 311 app or contact the Action Center at 816-513-1313 and report the location.