MoDOT, public works crews continue to treat roads overnight

Road crews will continue working through the night into early Saturday morning as more freezing rain is forecasted for much of mid-Missouri.

Columbia Public Works has had 25 trucks out treating the roads since 7 a.m. Friday. Another crew took over at 7 p.m.

Barry Dalton, a spokesperson for Columbia Public Works, said crews have been focusing on priority routes in the city. He said residential streets likely won’t be treated over the weekend.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is also operating a full crew on 12-hour shifts likely through Sunday, when the winter weather is expected to stop and temperatures are forecast to rise.

“We’ll give it a couple hours because we want the pavement temperatures to go up above freezing, and we want Mother Nature to take over, and make sure any ice on the road will be melted and we’ll be driving on just wet roads,” said Melanie Mayes, assistant supervisor at the MoDOT Columbia maintenance facility.

Mayes said crews focused more on roads in southern Boone County along Highway 63 Friday. Other than some minor equipment maintenance she said crews didn’t run into many challenges on the roads.

“We were anticipating and prepared for the worst and fortunately it just worked out,” Mayes said.

Cole County and Jefferson City Public Works are also keeping small crews on overnight to keep an eye on the main roads and watch for slick spots.

The county will have its full road crews in Saturday by 4:00 a.m. to get ahead of the storm.

“I can’t stress hard enough, we need to make sure that, if they can, stay at home again in the morning so we can make sure all roads get checked,” Cole County Public Works Director Larry Benz said.

The city will also have crews out in full force before daybreak.