Officials explain road treatment process after sudden Sunday snowfall
TaMya Bracy
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) — On Sunday afternoon, snow fell across parts of northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas, causing hazardous conditions for drivers.
Many residents took to social media to express concerns about driving on major roads, including the Belt Highway and Frederick Avenue. Some reported seeing vehicles slide and become stuck.
Jackson Jones, superintendent of streets and infrastructure for the City of St. Joseph, said the rain that fell before the snow played a role in the roads not being pre-treated.
“You can’t put the pre-treatment down in a liquid form if the roads are wet because it dilutes it,” he said. “That pre-treatment is depending on the water flushing off it, and then the salt and sugars sticking to the road. So you couldn’t have done that.”
Jones said rock pre-treatment wasn’t done because of strong winds gusting as high as 50 mph.
“As heavy as that wind was, yesterday you couldn’t have done anything there because it would just blown the rocks off on dry road without any snow to hold it, and blowing off the edge of the road, curb and gutter down storm drains,” he said. “So it would be useless to do that.”
Jones said once flurries started, public works went out to treat streets.
“In the 2:00 (p.m.) area or a little later than that, they (crews) said they were noticing some slickness. At that point, we decided to call the day shift storm crew,” he said. “They came in, and we started dispatching trucks immediately, so we were out there while it was going on.”
Jones said crews worked into the overnight hours to clean up St. Joseph roads.
“The whole town was salted within about 19 to 20 hours from the time we left out of here until we finished. Last night, they would of primarliy been in the residential areas salting, and they finished up mid-morning,” he said.
When it comes to clean-up efforts, the Missouri Department of Transportation has jurisdiction over state highways and routes.
MoDOT District Maintenance and Traffic Engineer, Adam Wood, said the department was expecting winter weather, but the rain that came earlier in the morning made it difficult to treat the roads.
“Every storm is a little difficult when we treat,” he said. “We had crews start coming out early afternoon, before the snow hit our area.”
Wood said they had crews treating the road up until 11:00 p.m. Sunday.
“We had a few crews lingering out there. We did not have crews overnight with the cold temperture its really hard to do a whole lot of treating,” he said. “Today (Monday), we do have more crews out there finishing things up, making sure shoulders and everything are back to normal conditions.”
Jones said if St. Joseph residents notice any slick roads, call 816-271-4848.
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