- With extremely low temperatures across our neighborhoods, drivers say the roads have been very slippery and at times dangerous
- Lansing's Director of Public Services, Andy Kilpatrick says the city has not been putting salt down because rock salt, which is what the road crew mostly uses, become really ineffective below 15 to 20 degrees
- Now that temperatures have slowly risen, crews are now out in the neighborhoods, plowing and salting the roads
- I stopped at the BP gas station in the neighborhood to talk to drivers about their experiences on the road during the winter weather
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
I'm your neighborhood reporter Asya Lawrence and I spoke with the city of Lansing about what they're doing to combat the conditions and heard from neighbors about their experiences in these slippery surroundings.
"I had to leave like 20 minutes earlier than usual," said Abula Amir.
I caught up with neighbor Abula Amir at the gas station here on the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard as he was on his way to class.
"I was going 10 miles per hour and I was still slipping," he said.
He wasn't the only one slipping and sliding.
And in an effort to prevent more of this happening, Lansing's Director of Public Services, Andy Kilpatrick told me his crews are on the move.
"We'll ramp up as we need to get this address at least on the major streets by the weekend and then we'll move into our neighborhood streets." Kilpatrick said.
Some neighbors already see a difference.
"How were the roads on your way to the grocery store?" I asked one neighbor.
"The roads were actually pretty good," she said.
But some are wondering what took so long.
"The temps have made it really rough because rock salt which is what we mostly use, becomes really ineffective below 15 to 20 degrees so when it gets down to zero we can put out as much as we want but it's not going melt the snow," Kilpatrick said.
Now that temperatures are back in the teens, around 5 road crews have left the salt facility and have already made their way through most of Lansing's main streets.
"By early next week, I know we'll be in really good shape," Kilpatrick said.
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