Nutter Outlines City's Plan For Round 2 of December Snows
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Mayor Nutter says city snow plows will head out starting at midnight tonight in anticipation of tomorrow's second dollop of snow in Philadelphia (see related story).
The mayor says the overnight crews will be salting first, with plowing to begin later in the day as the snow arrives.
"This will take care of residual ice that's left from storm number one (on Sunday), as well as a pre-treatment for storm number two," he explained. "We'll supplement our forces also with contractors who work with the city, so that problem areas, especially up in the high hills of the northwest, can get addressed early."
Nutter says that however this second storm turns out, crews will be ready.
"This is a well-experienced team. We have a plan. We actually do know what we're doing," he said today.
Still, he cautions that one storm on the heels of another can make for difficult road treatment:
"You get ice that binds to the asphalt. Even when the new snow is on top of it, you can plow the snow (but) it doesn't work as well once it binds to the asphalt, so that's a challenge."
Crews will not brine the roads because that works on a dry surface and the roads have remained wet from Sunday's snow.
The city does not yet plan to deploy trash trucks to help with plowing. That could easily change, but for the time being, Tuesday trash collection in the city is expected to take place on its regularly scheduled day.
