INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The Indianapolis Department of Public Works will have a full shift of 80 trucks pretreating the streets Sunday night ahead of the first snow of the season in central Indiana.
There will be 20 trucks with the Indianapolis Department of Transportation to monitor highway conditions early Monday morning.
Both agenices tell News 8 they want to make sure the roadways are kept safe during the first snowfall this season.
“For the first time this season, you’re going to see our yellow trucks on the road,” said Mallory Duncan, INDOT communications director.
Duncan said crews will be out through rush hour; then more drivers will be deployed into Tuesday.
“We’re going to bring in 10 additional drivers to get us through this next round of snow, rain, sleet, whatever might be coming our way Monday afternoon into Tuesday night,” added Duncan.
Both DPW and INDOT have said they will have additional drivers on hand if conditions get worse.
Hannah Scott-Carter with DPW said, “We’ve started putting them through training in October so they’ve been gearing up and getting ready to go for a couple of months now. This year we’ve been training some of our solid waste drivers in case we need some extra drivers on hand.”
DPW is adding about 300 miles of road to their regular plowing route. The department announced this month it was dropping its “6 inches of snow” rule. Plows will now be able to respond wherever they are needed in the city.
“We are hoping to push further into residential areas more throughout this season than we have in the past years,” Scott-Carter said.
A key element INDOT says they’re watching for is the road temperature, especially on bridges and overpasses. As a reminder, drivers should give the trucks some space when they are out on the roads and give themselves time to get to where they’re going.
“There could be a potential for icy spots, there could be a potential for those slick spots on the road and we are looking at maybe accumulation of snow, so watch all of that,” Duncan mentioned.
