News Photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Monday, an Alpena Department of Public Works (DPW) snowplow is seen driving down Second Avenue. Alpena residents are required to remove snow from sidewalks that border their property or incur charges from the City of Alpena.

ALPENA — Winter-road maintenance is a multi-faceted strategy that is effective with good timing.

Steve Shultz, City of Alpena city engineer, said that the Alpena Department of Public Works (DPW) has a goal to have the streets cleaned from a snow event within 12 hours. Shultz said that this goal requires DPW staff to begin plowing roads while it snows and until a snow system has passed.

“Once the storm has ended, we try to have everything clean within 12 hours of the storm ending,” he said. “And it’s hard because you have to be out there when the snow is also falling to do that.”

Shultz added that winter road maintenance can be more complicated in Northeast Michigan as the region often receives lake effect snow, which is not represented on a forecast. This means that as a snow event passes through, it may have been more effective for staff to start plowing earlier or later to account for the lake effect.

“It’s hit and miss sometimes,” Schultz said. “You send a bunch of guys out there to plow, and, ‘Geez, if we would have waited, maybe four more hours, the snow would have been done.’

Or, ‘Geez, we should have gotten out there earlier because, man, the snow is really coming down now, but it’s not on the radar because its lake effect snow.'”

Shultz added that one of the biggest challenges with winter road maintenance is “figuring out when to get those trucks on the road and if it’s going to make a difference or not.”

According to Shultz, the community can better support DPW staff if they remember to not crowd plows and to recognize that plows do not drive the same way as other traffic.

He said that a plow may “do something different” at an intersection than regular traffic would, and remembering that can allow DPW staff to effectively complete their job.

“It’s hard to predict what the plow is going to do because they’re not driving down the road like a regular car does,” Shultz said. “They’re plowing snow, they’re taking care of a job, and they have a way that they do it.”

Shultz added that DPW does have a challenge plowing when residents park on the street overnight and staff are trying to plow late at night or in the early morning hours.

“There should be no on-street parking overnight right now,” he said. “And we do have some of that.”

Shultz explained that it is difficult for DPW to get a hold of residents to move their vehicles so that DPW staff can plow effectively.

In a City of Alpena press release on Tuesday, city authorities reminded residents and business owners that City Ordinance requires prompt removal of snow from sidewalks that border their property. If snow is not removed following a first reminder and a 48-hour time period thereafter, the city will remove the snow with expenses billed to the property owner.

“Keeping sidewalks clear helps everyone reach their destination safely” the release states.

A new strategy that the city is going to try is pre-wetting roads with a salt solution, which Shultz said DPW staff learned about at a training they attended on the west side of the state.

“One of the things that a lot of cities and villages are doing now is what’s called brining, and they apply this liquid prior to a snow event, and also during the snow event,” he explained. “And it assists in keeping the snow from sticking so once they go out there, the snow is going to remove easier off the roads. And it also does have some melting properties, as well.”

According to Schultz, prewetting the roads with a salt brine helps prevent snow or ice from adhering to the asphalt. This way, crew members will have an easier time removing snow when they plow. Afterwards, they would apply another layer of the brine to initiate the melting of snow and ice.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.