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Omaha ready for its first major snowfall

Posted at 10:53 PM, Dec 02, 2016
and last updated 2016-12-02 23:53:18-05

For the most part snow has stayed away from the city of Omaha and forecasts say the first measurable snow is just days away.

City leaders say this winter Omaha will be ready.

Omaha street maintenance engineer Austin Rowser says the city changed its snow plow operations since last winter.

“We really taking a hard look at our brine operations and how we are planning to schedule that and logistically how we go about operating and distributing brine,” said Rowser.

And there's a lot of brine ready to go stored in huge tanks holding around 90-thousand gallons.

“Having more capacity allows us to get more ground covered before an operation so we're not spending as much time making pumping and filling and things like that where we can just keep those trucks moving in and out,” said Rowser.

Another change, your residential streets will get plowed at 2-inches of snow-instead of 4-inches.

“We've got some more contractors that will help us out with that, we've got some newer trucks on the road,” said Rowser.

That additional manpower equals 215 more trucks available through private contractors.

But Rowser says their main priority is still to get main streets cleared, “We want to be able to serve the most people and the most motorists that we can and so we are going to focus on those arterials and major routes.”