Winter Weather Preparedness

Winter weather preparation starts months in advance for the City of Branson. That’s when employees make sure all salt/rock and parts are ordered and plow drivers are assigned routes. The City of Branson also has a team that constantly monitors incoming weather. At the sign of any freezing precipitation, city plow drivers will immediately pretreat bridges and other high propriety areas.

When ice and snow are predicted, the City will call in 30 personnel from four different departments. These employees will work 24-hours a day, on rotating 12-hour shifts, on the City’s 13 different snow routes. Branson City crews clear and maintain approximately 250 lane-miles of roadway inside its boundaries. Every city-owned street will get cleared of snow.

The City has two salt barns that, when full, have a combined total of 1,200 tons of material that includes road salt, rock chips and mixed material. The City also has the ability to produce salt brine, beet juice and calcium chloride mixtures for pre-treating roadways.

Interesting facts from the 2019-2020 snow season:

• The City saw 6 small weather events
• Road crews spread around 70-tons of material
• Road crews drove 4,731 miles
• In all, crews worked 2,214 hours and used 440-gallons of fuel 

After each snow event, crews will empty and clean trucks and equipment then treat with a rust preventive. It takes approximately three days to get everything back to normal. The Public Works Department prepares for the next snow event by mixing materials and refilling those materials in the salt barns. Several crew members, along with street sweepers, will also clean excess material left on the roadways and sidewalks around town.

Street crews remind drivers to slow down in winter weather and make sure to give salt trucks and other City vehicles plenty of space to operate.