County Preparing for Arriving Storm

Snow is expected to start falling across our area very shortly and last well into tomorrow and preparations are underway at the county levels to battle the storm.

As the scope of the storm has become clearer crews have been out on the roads pretreating with a liquid salt brine and rock salt. “Pre-treating the roads is key,” Freeholder Thomas A. Arnone said. “Magnesium chloride-treated rock salt is much more effective and, therefore, there is a savings in man hours and material. We use 30 to 50 percent less material and require less spreading trips, depending on the snow event, for the same result.”

Freeholder Arnone said the county’s snow room is already open and monitoring the track of the storm. There are currently 135 trucks ready to be used for plowing and spreading across the county.

“Monmouth County’s snow removal program is unique because we focus on keeping the ice and snow from bonding to the road surface,” said John Tobia, director of the Department of Public Works. “You may notice that the lanes will be slushy instead of iced over. That’s the first step before the plows come by and push it all aside.”

According to the most recent forecast the storm should bring between four and eight inches tonight and an addition inch or two during the day on Friday. The low for tonight is expected to be near 15 degrees and rising to a high of just 18 on Friday. With the wind chill the temperature on Friday could get as low as three degrees below zero and five below on Friday night.