Another winter storm is on it's way for Friday and experts are advising Iowans to pre-treat their driveways and sidewalks.
True Value Hardware Manager Todd Treese tells WHO-TV 13 when a storm is expected to bring snow and then rain it doesn’t hurt to pre-treat concrete areas.
“If it’s going to come down in an amount of snow off the bat it’s not a bad thing to go out there and pre-treat your driveway. Especially if you have a slope driveway. It’s always good to pre-treat that with some ice melt,” Treese says.
Treese said there are different ways to treat different areas. “If concrete is less than two years old we shouldn’t be putting any ice on it. It should be just a mixture of sand,” Treese says.
The city of Des Moines Public Works Director Jonathan Gano said in ice storms plows will lay salt everywhere, including residential streets.
“If we do get an ice storm where it just turns into a hockey rink then we will put down salt everywhere. That takes us a lot longer,” Gano told WHO-TV 13.
Recently, the city increased its fine for not shoveling a sidewalk to $75 which also includes maintaining ice.
“It’s 48 hours after the last snow flake falls out of the sky. So that was 10:30 p.m. on Sunday. So, 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday was the first end of the 48 hour period where people have to shovel snow off of their sidewalks,” Gano said.
As of Wednesday no fines have been issued so far.
MidAmerican Energy plans to have extra crews on standby on Friday and will finalize its plans Thursday morning.