KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KCTV) The Missouri Department of Transportation’s road preparations for the upcoming winter storm appear to be different than usual.
Crews will be on the roads beginning Tuesday and continuing until the winter storm passes through on Wednesday. However, they will need to change their approach to road maintenance.
To begin, crews are focusing on rainy weather and clearing debris from streets and drains. Once the snow arrives, they will begin removal operations.
You may notice that there is no road treatment in the plan. According to MoDOT spokesperson Brook Rohlfing, salt is ineffective due to the unusual weather conditions of rain and snow.
“It’s not really effective in these kinds of conditions; we’re gonna see this rain changing over into snow, so there’s not a way to keep the treatment on the roadways when it’s washing away all day,” she joked.
This has not been typical for the winter, nor has this week in general. According to Rohlfing, crews have been working on a variety of projects this week, which typically require days or even weeks of transition.
“[Crews] may have pothole patching on Monday, monitoring roadways for rain and flooding and drain clearing on Tuesday and, then Wednesday morning moving back into snow operations so it is the wackiest week for us,” she told me.
“They’ve done a great job of keeping up with all of those different challenges and turning around equipment as quickly as they have to get ready for the next event.”
MoDOT has a traveler map available to check roadway conditions before you head out the door.
