The snow has stopped falling across Johnson County but frigid conditions persist across the Kansas City region, making it more difficult to plow streets quickly, city officials say.
The chief focus for Johnson County cities remains to clear the nearly record-breaking volume of snow that fell Sunday and the fact that that snow covers sheets of ice that began coating roadways on Saturday.
The arrival of frigid temperatures is also something to keep in mind.
Meg Ralph, director of strategic communications for the city of Overland Park, said in a text message to the Post on Monday that the cold weather will make it harder to melt the ice under the snow.
“Lower temperatures aren’t slowing things down necessarily but the issue will be the ability to melt the ice under the snow,” she said.
Here’s what Johnson County cities are saying about the state of the roads in their communities:
De Soto
- In a message on its website Monday, De Soto said crews were continuing to clear city streets with a focus on ensuring roadways were clear for emergency responders.
- The city says it typically takes 10 to 12 hours for crews to complete one cycle of the city’s entire 112 lane miles of roads, but it can take longer depending on the intensity of a snowstorm.
- The city may do multiple full cycles to ensure roads are as clear as possible, the city says on its website.
- Residents whose streets have not been cleared 12 hours after a snow event can make a plow request online here.
- Residents can check the city’s snow plow route map here.
Fairway
- City Administrator Nathan Nogelmeier told the Post on Monday morning that public works crews had completed plowing all city streets.
- Nogelmeier said the roads have all been salted, but the effectiveness of that treatment is limited due to the cold temperatures.
Gardner
- In a Facebook post on Monday morning, the city said most main roads had been plowed but remained icy and snow-packed. The city says it hopes to have all roads “drivable” by Monday night.
- The city says it won’t plow residential streets until after major thoroughfares, arterial roads, collectors and main-line residential roads are cleared first. Cul-da-sacs are the city’s lowest priority.
- To see where your street lands on the city’s priority list, you can check out the city map here.
- Residents are encouraged to keep vehicles off the street during snowstorms to make plowing easier and quicker.
Leawood
- Snow removal continues in Leawood with crews anticipating 12-hour shifts through Wednesday morning. “The volume of snow presents challenges,” said Beth Breitenstein, a city spokesperson.
- As of Monday morning, arterials and collector streets were considered passable and at least 40% of residential streets have seen at least one pass from plows.
- Crews hope to have done one pass on all residential streets by midnight, she said. Overnight crews will then focus on clearing larger snow piles from intersections.
- Breitenstein said heavy snow has caused smaller dump trucks and pickups to get stuck frequently, which has slowed progress.
- “We appreciate residents’ patience as our crews work around the clock to ensure safe and passable roadways throughout Leawood,” she said.
Lenexa
- Crews were able to make significant progress on the arterials and major collectors overnight, said city communications director Denise Rendina.
- Crews have begun plowing residential streets and will continue to work in those areas throughout the day and overnight into Tuesday.
- The cold temperatures will continue to be a challenge for crews in Lenexa, but the sunshine will help activate the salt and magnesium on the road, said Nick Arena, Lenexa Municipal Services Director.
- For general updates from the city about snow operations, visit the city’s official snow and ice removal page here.
Merriam
- Communications Manager Jenna Gant told the Post on Monday that Merriam “crews are working day and night to help get the roads clear.”
- Gant said that since the snow has stopped, crews are salting the roads again. She said the goal is for all the streets to be plowed by late Monday night.
- Snow plow crews in Merriam have cleared major thoroughfares like Antioch Road, Merriam Drive, Johnson Drive, Shawnee Mission Parkway and Knox Avenue, according to the city’s snow removal map.
- Some residential streets appear to have been plowed (by the snow plow dubbed “Clearopathra”) as of Monday morning, too.
Mission
- As of 9 a.m. on Monday, most of the main roads in Mission were cleared with crews heading toward residential streets, Public Works Director Stephanie Boyce told the Post.
Boyce said public works anticipates the entire city to be plowed by early morning on Tuesday. - The department pretreated streets on Friday with a brine solution to prevent ice from sticking to the surface, and crews treated streets with salt on Saturday, too, she said.
- Boyce said plow crews’ main obstacle is parked cars on streets.
- “These vehicles slow down snowplow operations as crews navigate around them,” Boyce said. “We kindly ask residents to park off the street whenever possible to help make snow clearing faster and safer.”
Olathe
- The amount of snow and removing it from the streets is the primary concern right now, said Cody Kennedy, Olathe’s communications and marketing officer, Monday morning.
- “We’ll continue to treat roads once we get to the pavement,” he said.
- About 140 people are working around the clock, prioritizing major roadways and collector streets.
- He warned that it’s possible the streets “remain a little slick for a few days” because of low temperatures hurting the efficacy of some treatments.
- Look at where the snow plows are in Olathe here.
Overland Park
- On Monday, Overland Park said on its website it was “actively plowing and treating streets” but it has in excess of 2,000 lane miles to get through.
- According to a news release from Overland Park, the city prioritizes thoroughfares and large collector streets when clearing snow and treating streets. Then, the city will start working on residential streets.
- Ralph, the city’s communications manager, said also that the ice treatment the city typically uses is less effective in extra cold conditions.
- “Hopefully the sun will help a little bit today as we get snow moved off the streets, but they could still be slippery, especially into [Tuesday] morning,” she warned.
- Overland Park has asked residents to wait at least 24 hours after the snow stopped Sunday night before reporting that their street had been missed on OPCares or through other means.
- Keep tabs on the snow plows’ progress here.
Prairie Village
- The city of Prairie Village’s public works department has more than 250 miles of streets to clear with eight trucks on the road, according to the city’s website.
- James Carney, a public works field superintendent, told the Post that main roadways like 75th Street and Mission Road were all plowed on Sunday due to the blizzard conditions.
- The crews began working overnight to hit collector streets like 83rd Street as well as residential roads, he said.
- Carney said the department is not using treatment products due to extremely low temperatures, which will render the treatments ineffective — and cause melted snow to refreeze this evening, leading to slicker roads.
Roeland Park
- Public Works Director Donnie Scharff told the Post that as of mid-morning Monday, 85% of all main and residential roads have been plowed and rock salt has been applied to those same streets.
- Crews are working to clear any remaining roads, but cold temperatures have made “it difficult to remove the snow all the way down to the asphalt surface,” he said.
- Scharff said he anticipates public works to have all streets plowed and treated by the end of the day on Monday.
- Rock salt is less effective at colder temperatures, Scharff said, but when combined with sunshine, the snow and ice should melt.
Shawnee
- Since the snow ended, city plows have been able to start the process of working through its priority list of streets.
- The city will not be able to address individual requests for plows until it knows crews have made it to every street.
- The colder temperatures will make fully removing the snow and ice off of the residential streets a greater challenge. Those streets will take time to fully melt, said Doug Donahoo, the city’s communications director.
- To see an up-to-date map of where the city has plowed, you can check out its official snow removal operations site here.
Westwood
- The city of Westwood’s public works team prioritizes Belinder, Mission and State Line Roads, as well as Rainbow Boulevard, according to the city’s website.
- Other primary routes are 47th Place, 51st Terrace and 47th and 50th streets. All other streets are secondary.
- Public works begins plowing primary routes with two inches of snow on the ground. Crews will plow secondary routes once accumulation reaches six inches of snow.
Be patient while snow crews work in your city
Teams clearing snow and treating the roads are working around the clock across Johnson County, local officials say.
In regular winter conditions, many Johnson County cities promise to have the streets cleared quickly after snow stops, but Sunday’s storm wasn’t a normal bout of snow.
In Overland Park, Ralph said members of the snow crew have been working 12-hour shifts for four days already.
To be close to the Public Works facilities they work from, some have been staying in hotels, which means they’ve been away from their families during that time.
In the meantime, Kennedy, the Olathe communications officer, said it’s important “to remain patient, give yourself and others grace, and allow for extra time to travel” if you have to be out and about today.
Juliana Garcia, Andrew Gaug, Kyle Palmer and Roxie Hammill contributed to this report.
Keep reading: ‘More than a generation’ blizzard shuts down Johnson County — Here’s the latest
