INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis road crews have been retrained and their trucks recalibrated in an effort to use less salt this winter, Mayor Greg Ballard said Wednesday.

It comes after the city spent more than $6 million on snow and ice removal last year -- about $2 million over budget -- putting down 63,000 tons of salt, 6News' Julie Pursley.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Ballard and members of the new management team at the Department of Public Works outlined a number of changes made in an effort to conserve.

"A basic level of salt will do the job," said DPW spokesman Todd Durnil. "The main job is to keep the snow and ice from bonding to the pavement. It really doesn't take a whole lot to do that."

Durnil said that the department had retrained drivers on how to fight ice and snow with a limited supply of salt and that all of the trucks had been recalibrated to go through less.

"Everything should go well," said salt truck driver Forn Johnson. "It should be pretty much the same. The streets should be cleaned. Everything should run efficiently."

Ballard said that the city had recently joined with seven other nearby cities to form an alliance for better purchasing power when buying salt, a move he said should cut costs.

Plans to replace DPW's aging fleet of salt trucks was pushed back, Durnil said, after the department had to use $1 million from the vehicle fund to patch pot holes this spring. No new trucks will be on the road by this winter, but 13 new vehicles -- at $160,000 apiece -- should arrive by spring, Durnil said.