Road crews urge drivers to use caution on the way to Chiefs’ parade
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Jefferson City Public Works and MoDOT Central District officials are urging drivers to be cautious if they are headed to the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory parade Wednesday.
ABC 17's Stormtrack Weather Team has issued a Weather Alert Day for Wednesday which calls for rain, sleet and snow.
Jefferson City Public Works officials said they applied pre-treatment on city roads around 4:30 p.m.
Britt Smith, the Jefferson City Public Works operations division director, said he sent crews home for the night but has a team monitoring road conditions.
"Pavement temperatures look like they're going to stay above freezing for the night but we will have a plow team ready if necessary," Smith said.
Jefferson City Public Works officials plan to have plow crews in at their usual start time of 6:30 a.m. and aim to work into the evening.
Smith said days like this are hard for his drivers.
"This is one of those that really wears on employees even when we're sending them in to rest, they're checking their phone seeing if they'll be called in," Smith said.
Smith said they may have a light crew to a full crew depending on road conditions.
"Once the snow stops it will take 2-3 hours to get everything cleaned up," Smith said.
Paul Denkler, a MoDOT Central District assistant district maintenance engineer, said they're expecting to have a long day Wednesday.
Denkler said the district's main crew of 225 trucks will start at 6:30 a.m. and work until 6:30 p.m. across 18 counties in central Missouri on Wednesday.
As for Tuesday night, MoDOT officials said their night shift will start at 6:30 p.m. and they will have a team out monitoring roads.
Denkler said advanced treatment is limited because rain is coming down and will wash treatment off the roads.
Overall, Denkler said they have 450 staff working for the 24-hour period, 230 people per shift to help cover snow including plow truck drivers and building supervisors to help coordinate.
Denkler said MoDOT's Central District started the winter season with 38,000 tons of pre-treatment material. He said on a typical season they use 31,000-32,000 tons of pre-treatment. As of now, they've used roughly 24,000 tons.
Denkler said they have placed some pre-treatment reorders for cushion and this comes out of their annual $16 million budget.
"We know that our Chiefs won the Super Bowl this weekend and there is a parade scheduled for Wednesday so, if you're out on I-70, be cautious expect heavy traffic, delays and congestion and be extra cautious," Denkler said.
