Tulsa's Mayor Says City Is Prepared For Winter

The city of Tulsa says it's ready to deal with winter storms.

Bartlett says the city has purchased five new snowplows and seven new spreader trucks, bringing the city's fleet to 44 snow plows and 62 spreader trucks.

It took a while to kick off that thick white blanket last winter. Snow plows and drivers worked around the clock. Now the city of Tulsa is reviewing its response.

"In dealing with the record blizzard, we did an A plus job, but there's always room for improvement," Bartlett said.

After the extreme winter, a task force came up with a list of recommendations. The city is adding five more snow plows and seven more salt spreaders to its fleet. It's also starting off with 5,000 more tons of salt, even though we never ran out last time.

"It's nice to have everything on hand and especially to have the new equipment so we can put more people on the roadways to help out," said Tim McCorkell, Streets Maintenance Manager.

Remember how city buses were no match for the quagmire of snow? The transit authority has bought chains for all bus tires and altered its driver training.

"Drivers will be instructed not to take people to the curb and get stuck in the snow and ice," Bartlett said.

That never-ending headache of stranded vehicles led the city to negotiate contracts, now that can be pulled off the shelf if outside companies need to help with towing or snow removal.

"Immediately implement them, hire the people necessary to do what the job is and we won't have to wait for a long as we did last time," Bartlett said.

The only thing that hasn't changed -- you'll still need to break out your own shovel. The snow plows and salt trucks only do the busy streets.

The new snow-clearing routes will be available for residents to check out on the City of Tulsa's web site.

Bartlett said he expected to have between 14,500 to 15,000 tons of salt stockpiled.  Last year, the city of Tulsa had only 9,600 tons of salt stockpiled.

He says the goal this winter is to make expressways and arterial streets safe and passable as soon as possible after snowfall or ice begins.