Tulsa Crews Ready To Clear Streets With Sand And Salt

City crews have been working overtime to clear the roads after Sunday's snow storm and now they're getting ready to go again Tuesday.

The City of Tulsa is preparing for the next round of winter weather.

The city of Tulsa plowed snow all day Sunday but first thing Monday morning went back to mostly normal operations. They're figuring they'll be back out about midnight.

The snow plows are parked so they can be repaired and ready for whatever happens Tuesday. Sunday turned into more snow than ice.

Leon Kragel with the City Street Maintenance Department said, "We actually plowed a lot more than we salted. We were able to plow it off the roads and take care of it instead of using salt because it wasn't much of an ice event like they're talking about for tomorrow."

Tulsa uses almost pure salt to treat icy roads and Sunday they spread 1,600 tons of it, but there's plenty more on hand for the weather ahead. City plows and salt spreaders will go back out as soon as the temperature dips below freezing.

While the neighborhood streets remain blanketed with snow, the city cleared up the arterial streets in about 18 hours. It took 3 passes on most streets, so the plows covered 57 hundred miles.

They didn't clear all the snow and ice on the steep hill up to Turkey Mountain at 71 and Elwood. It will remain closed for the time being, and cars are still off on the side.

The city believes the south side, with the most hills, also got the most snow.

"The storm came in from the south so that area got hit first, and then as it moved through, our attention had to move that direction before we could move more north. But once it hit the whole city, we were spread out throughout the city," Kragel said.

It takes more time to move ice than snow because the ice has to be treated first and plowed later, that's at least one extra trip. But generally the timeframe the city plans for is to clear the arterials within 24 hours of the storm ending.