Though snowfall in Bowling Green this season has amounted to little more than a dusting here and there, Bowling Green’s Public Works department is ready to roll if Old Man Winter decides to pay a visit.

Ryan Johnson, BGPW operations manager, said the city maintains 2,000 tons of de-icer, the substance laid on roads throughout the city in advance of snow. The de-icer he said is rock salt coated in magnesium chloride.

“The first week in October, we take one day out of the schedule that we have, and we solely dedicate it to preparing for ice,” Johnson said.

During this training, the city checks the de-icer machines and makes sure all the snowplows are in working order. BGPW maintains 10 large trucks for plowing and runs a fleet of smaller one-ton trucks as well.

Like with leaf pickup, the city is divided into ten zones for snow removal. Johnson said each truck is assigned to a different zone, and crews will travel their routes to get familiar with them.

Johnson said each zone is broken down into A, B, C and D routes. “A” routes include roads for emergency uses and “main corridors into neighborhoods. “B” routes include some connecting roads and routes for school buses. “C” routes consist of secondary roads and “through-streets,” and “D” routes are dead-ends and cul-de-sacs.

During a snow event the city will open up A and B routes first. Johnson stated this adds up to 431.51 miles. After these routes are clear, the city moves down the list.

“We do also pretreat if we know it’s coming in as snow,” Johnson said. “The problem in our area is that, most of the time, it starts off as a rain event … if it’s coming in as a rain event, it’s just gonna wash it off.”

According to the city’s website, snow plowing will begin after two inches of snow accumulate or if “extreme” snowfall is predicted.

Crews work in eight hour shifts over 24 hours to maximize manpower during a snow event. Once the snow event ends and all priority roads have been cleared, requests for the city to plow specific roads will be taken.

Johnson said since Bowling Green only averages around nine inches of snowfall per year, the 2,000 tons of de-icer maintained by the city is more than enough to cover multiple snow events.

“It’s usually an inch or two at the most at one time,” Johnson said, adding that during a normal snow event the city uses between 150 and 200 tons of de-icer at a time.

He said the city aims to use around 200 pounds of de-icer per lane mile. For more information on city snow clearing, visit https://www.bgky.org/publicworks/snow-routes.