Clearing Tulsa's Streets

Tulsa city street crews are clearing the streets from the last storm and preparing for another. With no power outages in Tulsa, the main problem is getting around. <br/><br/>The city of Tulsa hasn't

Thursday, January 18th 2007, 10:36 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa city street crews are clearing the streets from the last storm and preparing for another. With no power outages in Tulsa, the main problem is getting around.

The city of Tulsa hasn't finished clearing the main streets and there is snow in the forecast. News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the biggest change has been the rising temperature, that's helped melt some of the top layer, but the ice on the bottom is still stuck on the road.

It's going to be a bigger problem if it's not cleared before the snow comes this weekend. Tulsa's street clearing job remains in emergency mode, 12 hour shifts for every driver and now there's an even more urgent problem, there's snow on the way.

Tulsa street maintenance director Dan Crossland: "We want to get the arterials cleaned up by the end of tomorrow, so they'll be clean by the time the snow arrives."

The snowplow drivers say it's been hard to clear the streets because the ice is much harder to move than snow. "It takes the city a lot longer to clear ice because the equipment can move only about as fast as a person can walk. Imagine having to drive all of the city's street - moving at this pace."

The road grader moves ahead of the snowplows because they can dig down into the ice. When snowplows hit thick ice - the blade folds over - so it won't break off - but that makes it ineffective. So with the road grader up front - the plows follow behind to move the snow to the side.

The only way to make the process faster is to have more trucks on the road and more people to put behind the wheel. But every dollar spent for snowplows is a dollar that can't be spent for something else.

Tulsa city officials say every available sand and salt truck is still on the road, with the drivers working 12 hour shifts, against a deadline of more snow on the way.