Sunday’s snowy blitz caps off a weekend of brutally cold weather.
The temperatures are so cold that it’s actually made snow removal from the roads even more difficult.
“Now, the trucks are all out but they’re plowing but not salting,” Craig Bryson, spokesman for the Road Commission for Oakland County said. “The temperature is too cold to salt.”
Road salt is rendered largely ineffective in extremely cold temperatures – which is what we’ve experienced this weekend.
Salt is most effective when temperatures are in the mid-20s to low 30s.
Temperatures topped out in the lower teens on Sunday, after failing to get out of the single digits on Saturday.
In southeast Michigan, temps have been well under 20 degrees since Thursday afternoon, and mostly in the single digits or subzero since Friday morning.
That makes salting the roads a non-starter for the massive fleet of trucks rolling out in Oakland County.
“What we’re doing is just using the underbelly plow to just blade the snow off the road, but that leaves you know a thin layer of hard pack underneath that so the roads will in many cases be somewhat snow covered,” Bryson said. “We’re doing what we can because the salt does not work.”
In Wayne County, crews started rolling out around 3 a.m. and, unlike Oakland, did put down rounds of salt on the highways and streets, before moving to the plow and blade clean up.
“We use salt; it does work, but it takes longer to work,” Scott Cabauatan, the deputy director for the Department of Public Services, said. “We are treating it with brine before we disperse it out on the street, which kind of activates it.”
Macomb County also has salt and plow trucks on the road, and like Wayne, is being hampered by the cold.
“What’s hurting us right now is obviously the very cold temperatures,” Bryan Santo, the director of Macomb County’s road department, said. “So, we’ve got to have some additives that we put along with that, some brine and some boost to make that effective temperature better for the salt on these conditions.”
The counties are focusing on the highways, major state roads, and country roads, along with any high traffic areas.
Bryson said that Oakland County will also bring in private contractors to help with back roads and subdivisions.
All counties are asking drivers to give plenty of room to work trucks and “Don’t Crowd the Plow” if they see one on the road.
“Give us 200 feet of working space around the truck, Cabauatan said. “This lighter snow that we have it tends to create a dust cloud around the truck and that limits the vision of both us and the drivers.”
Michigan law mandates a car give at least 200 feet of distance to work trucks.
It’s illegal to pass them on the right, and dangerous to do so on the left.
Like police vehicles, you also must get over and give rooms to work trucks that are on the side of the road.
Violators can face potential fines.
The counties have similar advice for anyone hitting the roads this evening and the next couple of days.
“Please slow down, give yourself extra time, give yourself space between yourself and other vehicles,” Bryson said.
Cabauatan kept it even simpler: “If you don’t have to travel, stay home and enjoy the day at home.”