Manitowoc County’s Highway Commissioner and his staff at the highway department are preparing for a two part major winter storm.
Greg Grotegut tells Seehafer News that they’re not only going to be dealing with at least a foot of snowfall but the added factor of very strong winds.
“It’s just going to be a lot of time pushing back and keep running routes, but with the high winds you can’t use much salt ever because snow might stick to the roadway,” he explained. “So, in those instances we might sprinkle something out on the intersection so people don’t slide through those. But, typically with high winds situation you can’t do too much about cleaning up and so until the winds die down, there’s not a whole lot you can do.”
Grotegut also spoke about the expected long duration of the storm noting that “It’s gonna be 72 hours or more of snow so they’re going to be taking off 3 inches at a time every time they come through so it doesn’t matter if we take 2 or 5 inches, they’re going to make the rounds on the route.”
The highway commissioner also said his advice is if you don’t have to travel during this upcoming period, don’t travel.
“By all means, stay home during this duration,” he suggested. “It only helps our crews get everything cleaned up and the less likelihood of somebody going into the ditch. And our crews got to attend to those issues too and it just takes longer for everything to clear up again.”
Grotegut says he’ll have all pieces of snow removal equipment ready and have rotating crews of 35 men involved in highway cleanup.
Once the snow moves out of Wisconsin, cold temperatures will greet us with Friday’s daytime high only in the middle teens.
