Chesterfield Is Getting Ready for Snow

Chesterfield workers are putting up new snow emergency route signs around town, but that doesn't mean they expect an especially snowy winter. The signs are replacements.

"Sometimes those signs disappear, or they get old," Chesterfield Director of Public Works, Mike Geisel said.

The old signs were blue, with pictures of snowmen. The new signs comply with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, as issued by the Federal Highway Administration, like this one on Greentrails Drive.

"We make sure, as we go into every snow season, all the snow routes are adequately marked," Geisel said. "We’re just adding signs that are compliant."

Geisel said the main routes get priority treatment, which means plowing when two or more inches of snow fall. When that happens, cars need to be moved by the owners.

"Typically, the police department starts knocking on doors, they try to do everything they can do to get them to move them, and we’ve been very successful with that," Geisel said. He couldn't remember the last time cars were towed.

He said the city contracts with a weather service for the best advance notice of a storm. "It's a pretty regimented, scientific way of approaching it," Geisel said. They use salt, calcium chloride and salt brine on the main streets. The city of Chesterfield maintains 180 miles of roads.

Residential routes, like Greentrails Drive, are cleared by municipalities. St. Louis County's Operations Division clears the main routes.

"Our number one priority is our arterial road system," said David Wrone, of the St. Louis County highway department. "Those are the bigger roads like Forest Park Parkway and Brentwood Boulevard and Reavis Barracks and Patterson Road, the big multi-lane roads."

The county has 110 vehicles that can carry plows, and about 250 people on their snow team.

"When a storm is coming, it really depends on the strength the timing of the storm, we pre-treat our roads if possible with salt," Wrone said. He said if it's really cold they soak the salt in calcium chloride.

They work 24-7, 12-hour shifts in a big storm. "It’s not a matter of us working eight hours and calling it a day," Wrone said.

What are the chances of a big one this year?

According to The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center, the St. Louis area has a slightly better than average chance for a snowy winter, with average winter temperatures.