City Of Tulsa Prepares For Winter Storm

The City of Tulsa deployed trucks spraying a saltwater solution on streets Wednesday, in advance of freezing weather.

The pre-treatment helps prevent ice and snow from sticking on the streets. It's the first step in a storm response the city expects will last several days.

“They’ll stay out until the storm has passed,” said Tim McCorkell, the Streets Manager for the City of Tulsa. “If we need to apply salt multiple times, we will. But we'll also have brine crews on standby through Christmas, so if they need to come in during that time to treat the hills and bridges and overpasses, we'll do that.”

The City treats 1,700 lane miles of arterial streets, while ODOT handles state highways, and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority handles turnpikes.

Based on the forecast, McCorkell predicted the snow would clear quickly.

"With this system, it looks like it may be light on snow, it looks like we'll have high wind, and a lot of it should blow off the roadway, I expect it blow off the roadway, since we're not getting as much rain beforehand," McCorkell said.

The City plans to deploy at more than 60 people on 12-hour shifts to work through Saturday.

The city encourages people to stay home if they can, and asks anyone on the roads, to give the snow plows plenty of room to work.

It is illegal to pass working snow plows.