Road crews expect covered roads to last through Monday

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Those handling road clearing for Mid-Missouri expect major roads to stay covered well into Monday.

Machelle Watkins, an engineer for MoDOT's central district, said the continued snow and freezing cold temperatures overnight make it difficult for plow drivers to clear state roads across the area. The state has 1,500 plows working across Missouri, with 3,000 drivers working in 12-hour shifts.

"That precipitation's still falling behind us," Watkins said. "So once that stops, we can start making progress. But we have frigid cold temperatures. So the treatments that we use aren't as effective at those very low temperatures, takes a little bit longer."

Sgt. Kyle Green, with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, tells ABC 17 News even with the light traffic on the roads crash responses on Sunday were higher than usual due to the weather conditions. Green said many of the crashes were easily avoidable.

"Let's say, traveling on the interstate, the speed limit is 70 and you know, we still have people out there driving, you know, 50 or 60 miles an hour," said Green. "Yes, you're going slower than the posted speed limit, but you're not driving slow enough for the roadway conditions."

Britt Smith, operations division director for Jefferson City Public Works, said the roads in the capital city were snow-packed.

"With these temperatures in the teens that we got, that salt just does not have that much effect, and a lot of this snow has become frozen to the pavement," Smith said. "So it's going to take a little bit of heat from the sun to be able to help us out with that."

John Ogan at Columbia Public Works tell ABC 17 News the salt's impact weakens after temperatures drop to a certain degree.

"Salt is only effective down to about 17 degrees, below that salt loses a lot of its effectiveness and as the week goes on, we see those temperatures are getting really low," Ogan said.

Smith said that a smaller crew of plow drivers would continue to work overnight and the main crews would be back in full force starting at 4 a.m.

Ogan said a 27-person plow crew would work overnight to handle the city's roads.

According to Ogan, no city plows have gone down so far due to mechanical issues, as of Sunday evening. However, if the problem does arrive he says the city is prepared to handle it.

"That's why we have a fleet operations team always on duty. If it's a minor fix and it can probably be  turned around and repair in a couple of hours, but that's just normal operations for us," Ogan said.

Ogan said drivers should avoid parking on priority routes to ensure snowplows can clear the roads effectively.

"There is a potential $100 fine for parking on those priority roads, but it's not a means for us to collect fees. That's not why we issue those tickets. It's in order to serve the public safety, in order to have our plow drivers plow from curb to curb," Ogan said.

Residents can sign up for alerts about when parking can resume on snow routes at alerts.como.gov.