City Of Tulsa Street Department Prepared For The Worst This Winter

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett says the city is ready and prepared for the upcoming winter season during a news conference Monday morning.

Standing in front of a new snow plow truck, Mayor Bartlett said the streets are the life blood of the city.

"They allow us to get our kids to school. Allows commerce to work. Everything has to work and the best way to accomplish that is to have the ability to have transportation move throughout our city," said Dewey Bartlett.

Bartlett says crews will focus on getting the City of Tulsa up and running quickly in case of a severe winter storm.

Due to last year's moderate winter the city has been able to stockpile more than 14,500 tons of salt.  

Sixty-two truck-mounted salt/sand spreaders, 45 truck-mount snow plows and four motor graders which can be turned into snow plows.

Officials say the spreaders are assigned to 36 specific routes totaling 1,768 lane-miles. Spreading and plowing routes are prioritized based on traffic counts. Once the main streets are cleared and conditions permit, selected residential streets are treated based upon traffic and steepness.

A representative from the National Weather Service said there's a slightly higher chance of a warmer than normal winter, but the amount of precipitation we can expect is still up in the air.

Bartlett said that the City of Tulsa has devoted more resources to its winter response by working with other city and state agencies.