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(KSL News) With all of the snow we received today, Salt Lake City's department of public services sent us some fun facts about what it takes to keep the roads open and safe!
Every city has an action plan in place whenever the white stuff flies. In Salt Lake City there are 178 employees who are at the ready, in two shifts, available 24/7 whenever things get bad.
They move snow from 1,825 road lane miles. They clear 1.6-million square feet of sidewalk and work on 112 different public sites to keep them safe and accessible.
You've seen those big piles of salt on the sides of the roads. Each year, Salt Lake crews use 13,500 tons of salt! They spread the salt and move the snow using 45 large plows and sand trucks, 17 smaller plows, 15 sidewalk snow vehicles and a bunch of snow blowers and shovels.
The snow removal plan focuses on the main arteries first, and then to the secondary roads, and then into the neighborhoods.
City crews also coordinate their removal efforts with county and state. City ordinances vary, but rule of thumb for homeowners is to have snow removed from their sidewalks within 24-hours after the storms end.
