Snow crews across Puget Sound preparing for mid-week snow storms

In Pierce County, salt trucks began treating the road Tuesday morning.

KOMO meteorologists forecast the heaviest precipitation appears to be concentrated from about Pierce County and over to the Hood Canal down south into Southwestern Washington.

“We have pre-staged three motor graders in our high country towards Greenwater, above Eatonville, and in the Buckley area so we feel we are as prepared as we could possibly be for whatever the event brings us,” said Tom Zirfluh, Maintenance Program Manager for Pierce County.

Zirfluh said they can staff up to 30 snow plows and salt trucks should the conditions require it.

He added that they’re poised to shift staff members to 12-hour shifts.

Agencies across the region are preparing for the impending snow storm.

City of Olympia:

Once in plowing operations, the City has a total of seven plows with sanders that we are able to deploy. This equipment is prepped and ready to go. Operations staff are prepared to shift into 24-hour operation as needed to operate the equipment around the clock.

The City is prepared to initiate our snow and ice plan. The plan prioritizes our main arterial or “lifeline” streets, as well as certain hills and bridges. Public safety access, such as to the hospitals, is always our top priority. Once these streets are in good shape, we move on to the secondary/collector streets. Additional information about our snow and ice plan can be found on the City’s website.

We have a live snow plow map, so once the plowing begins our community can track where what streets the plows are working live. On Wednesday. operations crews will be applying deicer to priority streets and hills ahead of the storm.

City of Tacoma:

Street Operations will start to de-ice the snow routes tomorrow, so they will be using de-icing trucks. Then when the City starts 24/7 snow/ice operations on Thursday it means that Public Works is deploying 12 snowplows, 4 sanding trucks, and 3 de-icing trucks throughout Tacoma and will continue snow operations throughout the storm event.

City of Seattle:

In advance of the potential snow we could receive on Thursday and Friday, we are monitoring weather reports 24/7. We will also pre-treat major roads before it begins to snow to prevent ice from forming. Our fleet of over 50 snow and ice-fighting vehicles are ready to go, and crews from several City departments will help clear streets where needed.

Here is some more information if it is helpful:

• SDOT Winter Weather webpage
• January 26, 2021 - On Monday, our snow plow drivers practiced their routes to stay ready for winter storms!
• December 22, 2020 - Let it Snow! Even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, we're ready for winter storms
• Map of SDOT snow routes. Once it snows, use this online Storm Response Map to see real-time updates of which roads SDOT has plowed and live camera feeds of road conditions.

Snohomish County

“The County is preparing an agile response based on the current forecasting models. It is too soon to tell how hard Snohomish County will be hit and for how long. We are taking advantage of the dry weather to put down anti-icing liquid along pre-designated routes and have been sending sanding trucks out early each morning to the higher elevations and eastern areas of the county. We will need to adjust as the weather changes. Every truck we convert to a plow is unavailable for maintenance operations. Currently we have 15 plow trucks active and scheduled to work over the holiday weekend. Fleet mechanics are standing by to mount up to 40 plows if necessary. We have also purchased additional plows for some of our one ton pickups to help clear more areas that are too tight for the larger trucks. In the northeastern areas we are testing a granular product that is less corrosive than standard road salt and a blue color that helps plow operators quickly identify previously treated areas.

Road Maintenance staff will be operating within COVID-19 safety protocols in the field for everyone’s safety. This protocol was designed with increased sanitization and social distancing in mind for the safety of our employees. We ask residents to remain at least six feet away from Public Works staff. Public Works has several layers of contingency planning in place to keep a snow fight operational during the pandemic.

If the snow begins to fall, our new snow removal and anti-icing map shows which routes are primary and secondary for plows to clear. It also allows residents to see what county roads have been recently plowed, sanded or had anti-icing applied. 2021 is the first year the public snow and ice activity map will be displayed, and some plows will not show up on the map this season. We appreciate the public’s patience as we get this service fully operational.”

Snow removal and anti-icing map web address.

WSDOT

A spokesperson said WSDOT has up to 100 snow plows available to treat major interstates and highways across the state. They also have 64,000 tons of salt and 1.1 million gallons of de-icer in stock.

“We are in good shape for the storm because we’ve had a very mild winter so far," said Tom Pearce, WSDOT spokesperson. "We haven’t used a lot of the materials we stockpiled for the winter."