The roads are snow covered and slippery, so all roadway users should plan for extra time for their commutes. The evening commute will probably be snow covered and slippery as well since the snow is predicted to fall non-stop throughout the day. Since the snow has been continuous, work performed by our salt route crews has been re-covered. Everyone should make good choices by driving slow, braking early, and exercising patience on their way through the city today.
The Streets Division has had 32 crews working the salt routes throughout the night. The salt routes are the major thoroughfares of Madison, Madison Metro bus routes, and roads around schools and hospitals. We will be maintaining these salt routes throughout the day, but we will instead deploy two trucks to each route, meaning we will have 64 crews working the main streets. We are doing this in order to keep up with the falling snow and have these critical streets open. Even with the doubling up of crews, roads will likely still become snow covered since it is actively snowing, so everyone should be slow and safe on their way through the city today. Keep in mind that since our crews will be focusing on the salt routes throughout the day, residential streets will be slippery and snow covered throughout the day.
The Streets Division will monitor the road conditions throughout the day, and future updates will be provided as this storm progresses.
Remember that the Streets Division will not plow all residential streets until there are three or more inches of snow accumulated on the roads, and the storm is at or near its end.