Marquette Township – February 5, 2014 – Marquette Township Grounds and Maintenance crews were out yesterday maintaining the roads today in a rather special way.
They had the giant grader out scraping the ice pack, three to four inches of packed snow and ice, off our local roads making it safer for all travelers.
Maintenance officials have a concern that by removing the ice pack, which acts like a layer of insulation, the frost will continue down. Township workers drilled down and found frost levels as deep as 72 inches!
The concern is that the frost will continue down to 96 inches, where the water pipes are and cause freezing issues for the Township. The silver lining is that it is February, traditionally a sunnier month. When the sun hits bare roads, there is a heat exchange which can help reduce frost penetration.
On another note, as of last Friday, the City of Marquette has had to thaw out 75 residents’ incoming water pipes due to freezing cold temperatures. Marquette Township just had their first one and noted that city maintenance workers are doing a good job keeping up with the demand, even going out on Superbowl Sunday to thaw out residents’ pipes.
