DAVENPORT, Iowa -- The price tag of a large winter storm, like the weather headed towards the Quad Cities, for Davenport Public Works Department costs approximately $175,000, director Nicole Gleason says.
That's a combination of compensating city crews -- about $25,000 -- and paying for salt and chloride, which is $60 per ton. In a heavy winter storm, city crews expect to use more than $150,000 in salt and chloride, which is combined so the salt sticks to the ground well.
The Davenport Public Works Department says for the incoming storm January 10, 2020, which features rain, followed by ice and snow, crews won't be pre-treating roads with brine.
"Because it's going to rain, it would be futile," Gleason says. "The brine will wash away."
The Moline, Rock Island and Bettendorf public works departments all agree -- they also won't be pre-treating roads.
Gleason says the Davenport Public Works Department is ready to take care of the ice and snowfall on over 1,000 miles of roads across the city, with more than 30 trucks headed out out, packed with salt.
"If you compare seasons, we've used half the amount of salt this year compared to last year," Gleason says.
As for how much salt crews use, it depends on how much ice and snow is on the ground.
"If 100 pounds (of salt) per mile is doing the job, we try to use that," Gleason says. "If it's not cutting the ice, we have to turn it up."
Rock Island, Bettendorf and Moline public works departments say they will send out about a dozen trucks January 10, 2020, and more will follow the next day.
Each public works department director stresses major roads are cleared first, then crews head out to plow residential roads about 12 hours after snow stops falling.
There are snow emergencies across the Quad Cities, with parking restrictions, during this winter weather event.