ST. LOUIS — As the St. Louis area prepares for potentially record-low temperatures and a blast of winter weather, so are the crews responsible for keeping the roads clear.
A City of St. Louis spokesperson told 5 On Your Side they are watching those temperatures and streets very closely, ready to remove any accumulation.
“For now, we do intend to have crews out [Monday] as temperatures continue to fall and the warm pavement gets cold enough to freeze. Trucks will hit the streets to respond to what ever accumulation we end up getting,” a spokesperson said in an email.
St. Louis County transportation officials announced on Twitter they plan to begin pre-treating the county's entire 3,200-lane-mile system with rock salt late Monday morning.
Missouri Department of Transportation crews plan to get to work by 7 a.m. Monday to get the trucks and plows ready. This comes less than a week after running through their winter weather response drills.
However, MoDOT doesn't expect to put the whole plan into action. Like other crews across the area, they anticipate a relatively minor weather impact when it comes to roads and travel. That’s because with the warm temperatures over the weekend, the pavement will remain fairly warm—meaning the precipitation isn’t likely to stick or re-freeze. MoDOT didn’t even have to go out and pre-treat the roads because of the mild weekend preceding this event.
Still, it’s important for drivers to keep a few things in mind: leave plenty of room around trucks to do their work, limit travel if possible and keep in mind that conditions can deteriorate rapidly.
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