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City Snow Plows Shift Back To Priority Streets

wcbe files

Despite a slow start to the winter, Columbus snow crews are working hard this month. 

Melanie Crabill, spokesperson for the Department of Public Service, says drivers have been working 12 hours on, 12 hours off.  

"Right now they are in the 2's and 3's; those are our collector and residential streets.  But aswe get colder again tonight we'll go back to priority 1 routes because of the temperatures.  And we use calcium chloride because it's more effective in these low temperatures.  Salt starts losing its effectiveness around 15 degrees or so, so we go to calcium chloride."  

Crabill says this week's work is taking its toll on drivers.

"I think they're probably starting to get tired. They've been working since Monday afternoon with very few breaks, but it's winter and we live in Ohio.  So that's why were here; we're here to keep the roads safe for everyone else."

 Crabill says some of the city's fleet of snowplows are down for servicing, but there are still 80 on the roads.  In case of extremely heavy snow falls, the city can press trucks from the Public Utilities Department into service as well
 

A native of Chicago, naturalized citizen of Cincinnati and resident of Columbus, Alison attended Earlham College and the Ohio State University. She has equal passion for Midwest history, hockey and Slavic poetry.
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