Jefferson City road crews facing issues with equipment as snow and cold batters area
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
As snow continues to cover the roads across Mid-Missouri, older equipment and bitter cold is causing some issues in Jefferson City.
Operations Division Director Britt Smith said there have been a lot of breakdowns. At one point on Monday, four of their trucks were in the shop after being out on the roads.
"It's pretty much everything, you're dealing with older equipment, you are dealing with equipment that is running at temperatures that it's not designed to be used at," Smith said. "Even if it was brand new we would still be seeing some of these breakdowns."
He also said the constant use of the equipment is adding to the issues.
"We've put a lot of hours on those snowplows, driving a plow across a road for 16 to 18 hours a day, it's going to beat and jar some things around, and that's what we are seeing," Smith said.
Jefferson City Public Works - Monday Night
The department will have a full 24 plow crew in until about 8 p.m., then a smaller crew will come in overnight to continue to monitor the roads. The full crew will come back early Tuesday morning to continue battling snow and ice on the roads.
Smith said because of the extreme cold and snow, there not a lot that can be done to get snow off the roadways.
"Given the temperatures and the fact the sun will be down, we won't be able to make much progress through those overnight hours," Smith said. "During that morning drive, everyone should expect to see a snow-packed road everywhere that they go."
Smith said that doesn't mean it's impassible, but drivers should be aware.
He is hopeful by mid-day on Tuesday, the roads start to thaw out with the sun coming out and activating the salt.
"Even if it's cloudy, the sun helps, but if we get full sun, we can get melt in a great big hurry," Smith said.
Cole County Public Works - Monday Night
Road Superintendent for Cole County Public Works Bryan Boyce said they are putting down a mixture of salt and sand just to get some traction. Crews will be out all night Monday and through the day on Tuesday.
He said in the more rural area of the county, less traffic isn't always a good thing, so it's harder for those roads to stay clear.
"A lot of traffic once you start plowing the road will kind of help to the road cleared off with this dry fluffy snow," Boyce said.
Like Jefferson City, the county is waiting for the sun to come out, which will get the snow to start to melt.
"It just takes that little bit of sunlight to boost this," Boyce said. "We also use the calcium chloride to mix in with our salt and sand mixture, which also helps to boost the salt and give it that little extra to melt this stuff off, but nothing is working... nothing."
