Overnight road crews will treat slick spots

Crews in Columbia and Jefferson City have cleared most of the main roads after snow hit Mid-Missouri Wednesday morning. Columbia Public works said crews will continue to monitor roads for ice as temperatures drop through the night.

Both Columbia and MoDOT had nearly 30 trucks on the roads during the heaviest snowfall Wednesday morning. Columbia crews were out at 7 a.m. treating the streets and clearing them until the snow stopped falling.

“A lot of it is the salt application right now. We’re lucky the temperatures are in the upper 20s right now. So, it’s really kind of an ideal temperature for salt to really work. You can tell streets that have been treated already – a lot of melting taking place,” said Steve Sapp, community relations spokesman for the City of Columbia.

But the problem for Wednesday night is when the temperature drops and water on the streets freezes. Columbia crews will be out overnight checking for, and treating, icy patches. MoDOT crews will be out on Interstate 70 and Highway 63 doing the same thing.

“Plowing is pretty much done. It’s just keeping an eye on ice. Once it starts to glaze over, it’s just a thin sheet of ice that forms on the road. That’s where the vehicles stop or try to speed up they loose traction,” said Richard Skelton with Missouri Department of Roads.

Jefferson City Public Works officials said the roads have been cleared. Police will check roads for icy patches throughout the night. An on-call crew will treat slick spots as needed.

The snowy and slick roads have created some hazardous driving conditions. Authorities report around 30 weather-related crashes in Boone County since the snow started falling.

The Highway Patrol reports 32 crashes in Mid-Missouri since Wednesday morning, of those, there were eight injuries.