OKC Treats 1,100 Miles Of Snow Routes During Winter Storms

The drive home is the new concern -- following a headache of a morning for commuters. For Oklahoma City, street crews are working 12-hour shifts to treat as many routes as possible.

Monday, February 16th 2015, 5:04 pm

By: News 9


The drive home is the new concern -- following a headache of a morning for commuters. For Oklahoma City, street crews are working 12-hour shifts to treat as many routes as possible.

Oklahoma City has more than 1,100 miles of snow routes and those routes are picked base on how many cars use those streets every day.

With this winter storm, 22 salt trucks have been mostly salting the roads instead of plowing them.

“A lot of ice and you know that's the one thing we don't like to see. We'd much rather have snow than ice anytime,” said Marc Holland with OKC Public Works. 

2/1/2011 Related Story: Metro Snow Routes Explained

The crews have 1,180 miles of emergency snow routes to treat in a 12-hour period. That's the same distance as Oklahoma City to Las Vegas. The map of routes is basically a grid and drivers each have a chunk of the grid.

“You possibly could be doing a north-to-south street and then you're doing an east-to-west street and it's a grid and it all comes together,” explained Holland.

The threshold for a snow routes is 10,000 cars a day using that street. The goal is to have any driver only be one or two miles from the nearest snow route.

“It's just a matter of time. We just got to get there and sometimes it may take more than one or two passes to get the streets opened up,” Holland told News 9.

Even with a plan, drivers have said certain snow routes could still use a lot more work and the city hears those complaints.

“That's why we have to make several passes sometimes and we are just trying to get a lane open and then slowly chipping away at it and get more lanes open as we go,” Holland said.

Now crews are gearing up for the second go-round as the sun goes down.

The City of Oklahoma City doesn't anticipate adding any additional crews this evening. 

View The Oklahoma City Snow Route Map

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