GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Temperatures in Green Bay hovered above and below freezing all day on Monday.
Those changes in temperatures and precipitation can present challenges for public works crews.
The issue with this storm is that this was the type that caused heavy snow and slush.
Green Bay Director of Public Works Steve Grenier says it's important for crews to get the roads plowed right away in these conditions.
Grenier says when it drops to below freezing, the pack of snow will turn into ice, which can be challenging to plow.
He says crews either wait until it's above 32 degrees again, or they resort to using heavy plowing equipment.
"Even with that heavier equipment, sometimes it doesn't necessarily work," Grenier said. "The other thing that we are careful about is we don't want to cause damage to the underlying pavement by putting the heavy equipment and trying to dig into a pavement."
Grenier says they also have to be smart when to use salt.
He says if trucks can scrap off the snow, there is no point to put salt down.
"We need freshwater to survive, and we're sitting on the largest freshwater aquifer on the face of the planet, and we can't just keep dumping salt into it," Grenier said. "We're going to eventually turn the Great Lakes into an ocean, OK? That's not sustainable."
Grenier says salt isn't feasible economically either, because it's expensive.
