Snow and ice control operations is a major priority of Public Works during the winter season. Winter snow and ice storms impact all Village residents, businesses, and institutions. The community health, safety, and welfare is reliant upon the capabilities, skill, and dedication of the Public Works staff to promptly and effectively keep local roadways reasonably safe for travel during and after storm events.

 

The Gurnee Public Works Department is responsible for the Village’s snow and ice control operations on 243 centerline miles of public streets and 328 cul-de-sac and dead end streets within the corporate limits of the Village. The Village is divided into 12 snow routes. Each route is assigned a large truck, which is responsible for the plowing and salting of the primary and secondary roads, and a small truck, which handles the cul-de-sac and dead end streets.

 

Salting operations begin as soon as streets become slippery, while snowplowing operations commence when more than one (1) inch of snow has accumulated on Village streets. All of the Village’s 12 main routes are salted and plowed simultaneously to ensure coverage of critical areas such as main arterial roads, intersections, curves, hills, and school zones. Salt use is minimized for environmental benefits and to reduce the impact on the watershed and other areas that receive storm water runoff. Public Works has utilized liquids, such as “Super Mix” for anti-icing and pre-wetting operations. Anti-icing is the application of a liquid blend of salt brine, GEOMELT, and calcium chloride on selected pavements before a snow or ice event. Anti-icing is intended to disrupt the bond that forms between ice particles and the pavement surface, thus allowing more response time to snow events and reducing the amount of salt otherwise required. Pre-wetting is the process of spraying salt with a liquid chemical (“Super Mix”) before spreading the salt on the roadway. Pre-wetting the salt helps it cling to the road instead of bouncing off or being swept off by traffic. To be effective as a deicing agent, salt requires moisture. Pre-wetting provides the necessary moisture to dissolve the salt, releasing heat, and thereby melting the ice and snow, as well as breaking the ice-road bond.

 

Snowplowing operations of all 12 main routes usually encompass between four (4) to six (6) hours to complete depending on the severity of the snowstorm. In heavy snowstorms however, crews will make two passes down each street and a single pass into cul-de-sacs to make streets and cul-de-sacs accessible. Full width plowing operations, from curb to curb, are completed after the snowstorms have diminished.