EAST LANSING, Mich. (WSYM) - While most plow truck drivers are just trying to keep the snow off the road, MSU is worried about getting snow out of the parking lots.
Thousands of fans are coming into town for the game against Purdue Saturday.
FOX 47's Alani Letang caught up campus officials to discuss their plan.
Landscape services told Letang a lot of the snow will not actually leave the parking lot. They plan to stack the snow on the west and east side of the parking lots, and that will, unfortunately, take up about 20-30 spots. However nearby parking structures that are walking distance to the Breslin Center are expected to make up for that loss.
"It's enabled us to have a lot more parking in the area, so we are able to use a lot more of those spaces to stack snow as needed," said Matt Bailey, MSU Landscape Services Manager.
When the snow stacks are overflowing into too many empty parking spots, Bailey said it's time for them to "come in and start hauling it we lead and trains and bringing it out to south campus."
Bailey explained that staying ahead of the snowfall doesn't necessarily mean his crew would have to hang out in the parking lots. Landscape services can monitor the Breslin Center while sitting in their office.
"The Michigan State Police department allows us access to the exterior cameras so from our phones we can monitor those areas and if they appear to be slick or icy we can respond immediately."
And responding early is also very important. Bailey tells me that he will start removing Friday's snow Saturday morning.
"Using some outside contractors that help support us in that operation, dumping our parking ramps, clearing our event locations," said Bailey.
Bailey told us they started a program a few years back that involved placing buckets of ice-melt compounds at the entrance of most campus buildings.
He encourages people if they see an icy spot, to feel free to grab a scoop and spread some over the area.
But Bailey said to use responsibly to limit environmental impacts
The MSU vs. Perdue basketball game starts at 4 P.M. Saturday, February 10, 2018.
