Preparing the roads for a wintry blast

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) – More winter weather is bearing down on West Michigan, and road crews are getting ready to deal with the ice and snow.

Newschannel 3 spoke to a number of road crews from around West Michigan and most of them were out working on Tuesday, from spraying deicer on the roads to putting down salt, most were out since early Tuesday morning, working to keep drivers safe when the storm hits.

At M-DOT's garage in Kalamazoo, rows of trucks were ready and waiting for the first snow flakes to fall.

"We know its coming," said Nick Schirripa of M-DOT, "we can be ready, we can have our crews ready."

M-DOT started pre-treating roads at 4:00 am Tuesday morning, doing prep work in the hopes that it will buy some time for when the snow does start. Among that prep work was spreading deicer on all state highways.

"We spread it over the dry roads and it remains there until it gets wet, and once the moisture hits it, it activates and it keeps the ice off the highways for a couple of hours," said Schirripa.

In Kalamazoo, the preparations began with crews heading to notoriously icy areas like Howard Street hill, using three different solutions to keep the ice away. Hills were given the strongest treatment, a beet juice mixture, while other areas were coated with a salt mix called 'pile' treatment, while areas that don't get as icy were given a layer of plain salt.

Workers Newschannel 3 spoke with say they are ready for the storm and will be out on the roads until it is over.

"As long as there's snow on the roads we'll have crews on the roads," said Schirripa. "Until its down to water, no ice, no snow, then we'll call it, but as long as it's snowing, we'll have crews on the roads."