ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Road crews will be maneuvering around Mother Nature in a few days.
To do so, departments have already been stocking up.
In Creve Coeur, 2,500 tons of salt glistens in the sun Tuesday morning, soon to be spread early Thursday.
"We start getting salt deliveries in October," Jim Heines, Creve Coeur director of Public Works, said. "We are going to be out pretreating the roads in preparation for the storm coming Thursday morning."
As for St. Louis County as a whole, there are 35,000 tons of salt stored.
David Wrone, the St. Louis County's public information manager for the Department of Transportation and Public Works, said they are good on salt.
Salt is distributed in domes in five different facilities: Two in the north, one west and two in south St. Louis County.
Heines and Wrone said trucks will be ready.
"We're loading our hopper and plow base tomorrow," also said.
Each department is making sure every inch is covered.
"We’re responsible for 3,200 land miles of roadway in unincorporated and incorporated St. Louis County. Our major roads...those are multi-lanes like Big Bend, Clayton, Jennings Station Road...roads of that nature," Wrone said.
However, even with all hands-on deck, more hands are needed for the County.
"We’re definitely short of drivers. It’s very difficult to maintain a full staffing level. Ideally, we would like 225 (operators), and now, we’re looking at a staff of 187. Depending on the type of storm we get, there will probably be delays in service, but we will get to everything. It’s just a matter of time," Wrone said.
Heines said they are not feeling the heat too badly.
"Our staffing has been better than it has been in the last couple of years. COVID did hurt our staffing levels," Heines said.
But with new hires, they still had to do the prep work.
Statewide, approximately 690 snowplow operators have less than one year of experience. Heines said, back in October, newcomers ran their routes and drove trucks to be familiar with the equipment, rather than diving into it when weather hits.
For now, the agencies try to play defense, but time will tell what's coming in their direction.
"We’re basically in wait mode because you don’t want to jump the gun and do something you’ll regret with pretreatment," Wrone said.
Wrone is asking the community for patience as they work hard to keep the roads in shape and safe.
A spokesperson with MoDOT shares this statement about staffing shortages:
"Statewide, MoDOT is nearly 30% below the staffing needed to cover more than one shift in a statewide storm. In the past, MoDOT had 3,400 employees across the state to provide winter operations on the 33,891 miles of state routes. Staffing is currently down nearly 1,000."
The agencies ask for drivers to refrain from parking on the roads. Also, if you don't need to drive, then avoid the roadways all together.
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