Pierce County Road Crews have been working around the clock since Monday in response to recent snow and ice events. Thirty plow trucks and graders have been applying salt, sand, and removing snow accumulations on the county’s 1,500 lane miles of roadways.

Priority “lifeline” routes are plowed and treated several times during each shift. As of midnight Thursday morning, crews had applied approximately 675 tons of rock salt, 225 tons of sand and 9,500 gallons of liquid anti-icer. Pierce County’s snow and ice plan divides priority routes into 28 response zones, each about 50 arterial lane miles.

Plows are assigned to each zone, with initial priority given to the primary roads. Once these routes are bare and wet and no new snow accumulations are expected, crews can then focus on the primary local access roads in each snow zone.

The forecast is predicting cold temperatures Thursday night and Friday so crews will stay in snow and ice response mode as long as necessary to prevent re-freezing on primary routes and to clear primary local access roads.