Snow is expected to return today, with accumulations predicted at 1 to 2 inches, with some spots getting as much as 3 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

Maintenance crews across cities and townships in Butler County are ready for the snow — with detailed policies on dispatching snow plow trucks and prioritizing roads for clearing, officials said.

Covering Hamilton’s 219 miles of roadways are as many as 25 trucks equipped with snow plows, said Richard Engle, public works director.

Roads are cleared based on priority — with high-capacity roads and “connector streets” being cleared first, such as High Street and South Washington Boulevard between Millville Avenue and Hamilton New London Road, he said.

“We have primary routes … when it’s snowing hard we focus on clearing those and reducing congestion,” Engle said.

In the event of heavy, quickly accumulating snowfall — as occurred with five inches on Dec. 26, 2012 — the priority roads are continually plowed by workers to keep them clear for emergency vehicles. During heavy snowfall, the less traveled neighborhood streets and cul-de-sacs suffer the most, he said.

“When primary routes start to stay clear, we hit the secondary routes,” Engle said. “The problem (on Dec. 26) was we spent so much time on primary routes that on neighborhood streets the snow was packed down into ice.”

Within the city of Middletown, there are 600 lane miles of streets covered by five snow routes, said Ron Phelps, public works superintendent. Each route is covered by a team of four trucks — two heavy dump trucks, a one-ton truck and a pickup truck — all with plowing and salting capabilities.

“After the (Dec. 26) event we spent two days addressing widening of streets and salting problem areas that may have remained,” Phelps said. “We do have several cul-de-sacs and some narrow streets due to on-street parking … These are initially made passable with follow up clearing after the initial event.”

In Hamilton, on-duty staff in the police department and street maintenance division will monitor weather forecasts and communicate with the emergency dispatch center if they spot problem areas of high levels of snow accumulation that needs immediate attention, Engle said.

Prior to storms, Engle said roads are pre-treated with brine, an agent that reduces the formation of ice, and snow plow trucks are tested to ensure they’re in working order.

“On narrow streets and small cul-de-sacs, we have small trucks now for that,” Engle said. “The intent is to get down more narrow streets without causing excessive damage.”

Officials from the Butler County Engineer’s Office said they assign truck drivers to the same routes each year so they become familiar with maneuvering any trouble spots.

Chris Petrocy, spokesman for the engineer’s office, said his office encounters some unique problems on the 607 miles of road it’s responsible for clearing. The engineer’s office, he said, encounters a mix of urbanized roads in the West Chester-Liberty-Fairfield township areas, and rural roads with less traffic in the western and northern townships.

“It is not unusual for our crews to encounter four- to five-foot drifts following a routine six-inch snowfall if the snow is light and fluffy and winds kick up,” Petrocy said. “There tend to be fewer markings along the edges of roadways in rural areas … mailboxes and telephone poles … making it much harder for drivers to know where the road actually is in the event of a heavy, deep snow.”

In the county’s largest township, West Chester Twp., there are 18 snow routes encompassing 230 miles, said Tim Franck, community services director. The township deploys just more than 20 snow plow trucks to clear roads during large snow events.

For this season’s only significant snowfall thus far — which began midnight Dec. 26 and lasted about 24 hours – Franck said the township staff got ahead of the morning traffic by starting early. He said it also helped that the heavy snow occurred the day after the Christmas holiday, when more people were on vacation and less vehicles were traveling.

“Because we knew the storm was coming we checked all trucks and mechanisms and made repairs ahead of the snow,” Franck said. “We provide a very high level of service in West Chester. Everyone has a different set of expectations but (residents) know our priorities.”

Franck said whenever the township receives more than three inches of snow, subcontractors are called in for tending to cul-de-sacs and neighborhoods. On Dec. 26, the township utilized seven subcontractors.

“They charge us hourly and it’s more efficient to plow (cul-de-sacs) with smaller plows,” Franck said.