Road crews keeping an eye on weather, waiting to treat roads

Public works crews in Columbia and Boone County are waiting to treat roads until Friday morning.

Columbia road crews treated bridge decks Thursday morning, but the bulk of treatment will have to wait because they’re waiting to see what the precipitation levels and temperatures will be Thursday night, said Barry Dalton, a spokesperson for Public Works.

Both departments said their trucks are salted up and ready to go, but won’t be out during the day Thursday.

Greg Eddington, with Boone County Public Works, said if they start too early, traffic could whip the salt off the roads and take away from the effectiveness of the salt.

He also said if it rains Thursday night or Friday morning, the salt could be washed away from the road.

Crews are keeping a close eye on the weather, because if anything changes, they’ll need to go out earlier. For now, Boone County Public Works will start treating roads around 6 a.m. Friday, and Columbia Public Works will begin late morning Friday.

Columbia crews don’t have a night or morning crew on currently, but Dalton said that could change along with the weather.

Boone County said it will have all roads treated by noon Friday. Columbia said it will have all priority routes treated by that same time.