MoDOT prepares to treat major highways during weekend winter storm with inexperienced plow crews
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KY3) - This weekend’s winter weather is expected to hit the I-70 corridor between Kansas City and St. Louis especially hard.
The Missouri Department of Transportation warns the icy conditions will make travel dangerous. If you do not have to go anywhere this weekend, MoDOT asks that you just stay home. But if you absolutely need to be somewhere, MoDOT suggests you stick to the major routes like I-70 and I-44 as those will be the first to be cleared.
State Maintenance Director Darin Hamelink said MoDOT’s plow crews are ready to pretreat where possible, and work on clearing state roads all weekend. But those plow crews are inexperienced.
MoDOT has struggled to fully staff its snow plow units for the past couple of years, but recent pay raises are alleviating some of that difficulty. State workers received an 8.7% pay raise last year, and another 3.2% cost of living raise was added by the Missouri General Assembly. That raise has helped MoDOT fill over 1,000 open positions this year.
MoDOT has steadily increased staffing over the past year, adding some much-needed bolstering to its on-the-ground team. But 45% of MoDOT’s plow drivers have less than 3 years of experience, and some will still be training during this weekend’s winter storm.
“They work closely with their snow supervisor so that we want to get to the point where they’re both comfortable and ready to go,” Hamelink said.
Missouri Trucking Association President Tom Crawford knows Missouri’s roads better than most. He grew up in the trucking industry: his father and grandfather had a trucking company in southwest Missouri. When he was old enough, he too got his trucking license.
But that lifetime on the roads taught him that when winter weather strikes, safety is the most important thing.
“You’re still the captain of your ship, so you’re still in charge of making sure that you’re doing it in a safe manner,” Crawford said. “The driver of that vehicle still has the ability, and we trust their professional judgment to know when it’s best for them to pull over and just wait it out.”
MoDOT is warning everyone -- but truckers in particular -- that the winter storm expected this weekend will make Missouri roads difficult to navigate. For those at home, that means deliveries could be delayed.
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