MADISON (WKOW) -- As soon as snowflakes started flying, Madison plows started hitting major roads. Crews were able to pre-treat major corridors and keep plows on them all night -- but neighborhood roads are a different story.
"When people wake up (Friday) morning for their morning commute, they should expect their residential street will still be snow-covered," said Madison Streets Division spokesperson Bryan Johnson.
Johnson says all 32 plows are out, but they'll have to stick to the salt routes at first to keep up.
"Usually, people only have to go three to five blocks to get to a salt route," he said.
This year, Johnson says they're using considerably less salt than usual -- not salting in front of Madison Schools since students are virtual.
"Should be about a seven percent reduction total of the salt we'd put down in a given year," he said.
Seven percent is about 15 tons of salt per storm. Madison Schools are staying virtual through the third quarter, which is the busiest time for plows.
"The Martin Luther King, Junior holiday really kicked off our snowy season," Johnson said. "It snowed a lot during that time between then and, really, April."
Cuts on salt usage aren't the only pandemic impacts.
A city-wide hiring freeze means a limited number of drivers, and COVID protocols mean training is much harder.
"We have a strict, one-person/one-truck policy here at the Streets Division," Johnson said. "The best way to train someone is to sit next to someone in the cab of a truck, and it's not safe to do. It's not right for us to do right now."
Johnson says safety is the number one priority and won't be compromised, but smaller details might be.
"What people will notice is some of the finer points of plowing that trigger a lot of the complaints," he said. "Like, it's maybe not plowed back to the curb far enough in some areas. Or the speed at which we plow is a little slower."
Johnson stresses patience, saying plows will get to residential streets once the snow starts to end.
He also says that if you've got your trash barrels out in the road, you should bring them back off the road a bit so plows don't have to swerve and slow down.
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