Highway officials warn that lower temperatures could hamper slow response ahead of incoming snow

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) -City, county and state officials are ramping up preparations as another snowstorm approaches.

According to a release from the City of St. Louis, Street Department crews have been pretreating arterial and secondary snow routes since Friday and will begin 12-hour shifts at midnight, focusing on hill routes first, and may pretreat more streets, depending on timing.

The city also reminded residents not to park on the street on snow routes, and once again requested that people on hill routes move their cars to the odd-numbered side of the street. City officials have been working with local aldermen on an ordinance proposal that may eventually require cars to move in order to improve snow response on hilly side streets.

Ken Flake, the city’s streets commissioner, said it would help plows work around parked cars more quickly.

“You’ll see a lot better job done in those neighbors if we can get people moved to one side. It just makes it a lot easier even if we end up using smaller trucks on those hill routes,” Flake said.

Missouri and Illinois highway officials expect lower temperatures to complicate snow removal and disrupt multiple rush hours.

“There’s going to be a lot of snow over several days,” said Bob Becker from MODOT at a press event Monday morning. “There’s going to be several rush hours involved so we need to make sure we’re on board with this.”

On the Illinois side, Joe Monroe with IDOT said that conditions may change rapidly from Tuesday to Wednesday, and that highway crews may take a more balanced approach early on to avoid creating a slushy mess.

“We’ll have to take a long, pragmatic view of this storm. If those higher totals come to it’ll be a long few days,” Monroe said.

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