The biggest snowstorm of winter is moving across the state dropping large amounts of snow. DOT Winter Operations Administrator Craig Bargfrede says they have some 640 plows out now.
“We had plows out starting late last night into the early morning hours, primarily down in the southwest portion,” Bargfrede “As we got closer to daylight hours this morning, the number of plows really jumped up.” He says a large number of roads in the southern half of the state that are 100% covered, and a few in the eastern and southeast part of the state, as well.
A DOT plow on I 235 in Des Moines. The DOT is warning drivers to be alert for plows. (RI photo)
Bargfrede says traffic on the roadways is down. “I’ve seen notes for some incidents, some accidents out there, but I think overall, the level of incidents and traffic volume is down based on the forecast, and a lot of people seem to be, you know, heeding the warnings of this. This is going to be a kind of a nasty day here today,” he says.
Bargfrede says the forecast led to many closing and cancellations ahead of the storm’s arrival, and that’s why traffic is down. “Schools are closed, and so a lot of people are just kind of hunkered down at home. I would say,” he says.
Bargfrede says the winds are not heavy, which has helped, but temperatures have dropped down and that took away some of the storm prep. “The the issue that we’ve had today is that our temperatures are such, down in the single digits. Salt really doesn’t isn’t as effective at those temperatures as we would like to see it. So a lot of our garages were really not able to go out and pre-treat like we typically do,” Bargfrede says.
Bargfrede says it is a very light, dry snow and that can cause some visibility problems and drivers should be careful around plows. “Because we naturally kick up a snow cloud, and this light, fluffy snow, really kind of exacerbates that issue. And so they, come up on our plow really fast, not realizing that they’re doing it,” he says.
Bargfrede says they will keep the crews working throughout the day. “Will be out until this system blows through, hopefully later tonight or into the early morning hours on Thursday,” he says. “That gives us time to then finish up any trouble spot areas, get equipment back in, reset, reloaded, whatnot, and then prepare for what’s coming on Friday into Saturday.” More snow is forecast for Saturday.
You can go to the DOT’s 511ia.org website to see current road conditions.