Milwaukee's Mitchell International prepares for winter weather with practice snow, ice removal

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Despite the sunny skies so far, November means winter prep for Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport.

A parade of plows covered the runways Thursday, taking on imaginary snow.

It was one of a few pre-season practice runs for the snow and ice removal team throughout the airfield.

“It’s always good practice to get everybody back ahead of the game before we’re actually doing the snow plowing routes," said Operations Coordinator Donald Spitzer.

When clearing the runways, each run uses about 20 vehicles, including plows, flyer snowblowers, and trucks that spray aviation-grade sand.

Those trucks use potassium acetate and sodium acetate, rather than typical salt, which can damage aircrafts.

Twelve of the machines in action are the largest units, called "Combos."

“That’s got the plow in the front, the broom in the middle, and also has a blower on the backside," Spitzer explained.

With this fleet, it only takes about 18 minutes to clear a two-mile runway - a vast improvement from a decade ago.

"I started here in about 2004, back then it was a lot of plows and front-motor brooms. We were probably averaging an hour or so. So, we cut it down significantly," Spitzer said.

The maneuver is essentially "follow the leader," as the plows clear every inch of the airfield.

In order to allow flights to continue during a snow event, the team concentrates on one runway at a time.

“If somebody has to divert, that gets to a big cost factor for the airlines, so you always want to make sure the runways are an open, clean, safe environment to land," Spitzer said.

The main focus of the large operation is on flight safety.

“When the weather report comes out, even if it’s a dusting of snow, we’re out here. We’ve gotta keep it clean," Spitzer said.

Thursday’s practice run was the second this season. They hope to get a few more in before the first snow of the season.