DES MONIES, Iowa — After salt trucks and plow drivers battled the more than six inches of snow we saw Wednesday, crews are back on Des Moines roads again Friday preparing for another round of winter weather.

While the light fluffy snow Iowa saw Wednesday made it difficult for plows to keep snow off of the roads, frigid temperatures also kept salt treatments from working. Now, with heavy snowfall and warmer temperatures expected, crews have a game plan ahead of the weekend.

“We will be applying salt to the snow routes as we finish this afternoon’s event, however much gets delivered, we will push it off and leave some salt behind so that it’s ready and waiting for Saturday’s event, start melting, so that road conditions stay in as good as possible condition,” said Johnathan Gano, director at Des Moines Public Works.

Gano said snow removal crews have been working 12-hour shifts throughout the week to help clear, treat, and re-plow roads to keep driving conditions as safe as possible. He said when winter arrives in Des Moines, other aspects of the job take a back seat.

“When weather shows up with events right in a row, we flip into snow removal mode with the day shift and the night shift and stop anything but our most necessary of operations. So, we’re still picking up garbage during the day and we’re still moving and treating wastewater during the day, but almost everything else stops while we put people into the snow removal effort because that’s our number one priority during these times,” said Gano.

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