April snow is nothing new in Wisconsin, but for the Waukesha County DPW crews, they were ready to move on to construction season.
"We're done," Highway Operations Manager Bob Rauchle joked. "Our guys worked very hard. We put about 7,000 hours of overtime in from mid-January until the season ended for us at the end of March. We prepared for construction season."
If you've driven a car, you've probably noticed. Crews all over the area have been working to fill in Old Man Winter's dirty work. Projects, cracks and potholes in the roads will keep crews busy all summer.
But not before one more round of snow comes through with up to 6 inches expected.
"We've stripped our trucks down to the point we will not put slaters back on or wings back on because the conditions are just not right for that. The most we'll do is put a plow on and push slush off the road."
"We have salt in our domes, so we're not out of salt. We have it. Our hope is Mother Nature does its part for us." — Highway Operations Manager Bob Rauchle
While 6 inches of snow is not ideal for late April, the benefit is the ground has warmed up significantly. Rauchle says now they won't have to pretreat the roads or do any heavy salting because of it.
"We think Mother Nature is going to help us," Rauchle said. "We will not do any pretreating and probably not put any salt down unless the air temperature drops or we get some freezing on bridge decks. We certainly could apply treatment as needed. We have salt in our domes, so we're not out of salt. We have it. Our hope is Mother Nature does its part for us."
