Rapid City street maintenance team keeps traffic flowing through snowstorm

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Rapid City and surrounding areas were struck by a significant winter storm beginning on Christmas afternoon. While some residents may have been caught off guard, Rapid City’s street maintenance team has been planning for this event for over a week.

“Periodically, we’ll call up National Weather Service, we’ll look at every weather professional we can find to see what their ideas are, and we look at the models ourselves” said Rapid City street maintenance supervisor Jeremy Cahill. Cahill also mentioned that his team had checked their fleet of snowplows and salt trucks for any mechanical issues during the previous week.

Before the first snowflake fell, the street maintenance team was already on the streets doing precautionary work. Specialized trucks sprayed salt water onto roads around Rapid City, which would facilitate evaporation once snow began to accumulate. This preliminary salt spraying made plowing easier during the snow event.

Cahill and his team felt that this winter storm was manageable relative to storms they had seen in the past. Their preparation and execution, involving over 30 vehicles, mitigated traffic issues in the city throughout the snowstorm.

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