ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, November 30, 1996            TAG: 9612020041
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER

ROANOKE REINFORCES SNOW-FIGHTING ARSENAL NEW EQUIPMENT, A CHANGE IN TACTICS, AND NEW CHEMICALS ENLISTED IN BATTLE

Remember the deep snows that fell last winter? The delight of children who had school off for two weeks? The chagrin of their parents? The frustration of motorists, who wondered why main routes in the city remained covered days after the last snowflake fell?

The city administration can do little about old man winter and his predilection for storms, or school closings. But it is arming itself with more and better equipment to clear snow-covered streets this winter.

City Council will be briefed on future snow removal operations on Monday.

"We're going to try to become more proactive rather than waiting for snow to accumulate," said city Public Works Director Bill Clark. "If we have another 2-foot snowfall, we're still going to have problems. But I think we're going to be more prepared than we were last year."

The city is purchasing six new snowplow blades. Now, one can be mounted on each of the 47 vehicles the city operates in snowstorms. Last year, 41 of those trucks were outfitted with plows.

Another addition will be 14 new salt and sand spreaders to the city's current inventory of 21.

Also new are four systems that spread calcium chloride and magnesium chloride, chemicals that when mixed with salt will melt ice and snow at temperatures down to zero degrees. Plain salt is mostly worthless below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, Clark said.

The chemicals, which are expensive, will be spread on bridges, trouble spots such as steep hills and sharp curves, and downtown as snow begins falling. The chemicals also will be spread by street sweepers.

"These are used by many cities, particularly in the Northeast, in anti-icing efforts," Clark said. "What we're talking about is dealing with snow before it falls."

"Our goal is to have all vehicles involved in snow removal equipped with a both a plow and a spreader," City Manager Bob Herbert wrote in the report council will consider on Monday.

Finally, the city has beefed up its inventory of salt from the usual 2,200 tons it buys. This year, 4,000 tons will be on hand.

In all, the new equipment and additional salt and chemicals have cost almost $250,000, Clark said.

The idea for the new equipment, particularly the chemical systems, came from a North American Snow Conference that Clark and another city employee attended in Salt Lake City last April.

The city has also fiddled with its personnel plan for snow removal. Unlike last winter, city crews will be put on standby any time meteorologists are predicting a 50 percent or greater chance of snow, ice or freezing. Like last winter, they will work 12-hour shifts until after the storm has passed and streets are clear.

The city has kept its general snow removal plan, in which the city is broken into 16 districts.

Streets will be plowed in this order:

* First, major highways and known trouble spots, such as steep hills and sharp curves.

* Second, Valley Metro bus routes.

* School bus routes.

* Remaining secondary streets.

LENGTH: Medium:   68 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  File. Front-end loaders such as the one pictured here 
          were on the front lines in the battle to keep streets open last 
          winter. City officials hope new equipment and tactics will help this
          winter. color.