Cedar Rapids Weather
The Latest on Cedar Rapids and Linn County Roads
CEDAR RAPIDS - CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids streets crews put in a maximum effort overnight to try and keep up with the heavy snow. And as soon as plow drivers get some rest, the city plans to put as many plows as possible back on the roads.
City public works maintenance manager Craig Hanson says as many as 85 plows were out overnight. Crews have cleared the main streets as much as possible and perhaps a quarter to a third of the residential streets. The city will declare a residential snow emergency for Thursday and Friday to get cars off the side streets and complete the job here. Hanson says three culprits will still make driving in the city something of a challenge. The first: Many on city’s snow crew has put in 16 hours, and must now take at least an 8-hour break before returning to the streets. Secondly, high winds continue to blow snow back on to streets. And thirdly, temperatures have dropped below 23 degrees, which prevents salt from melting snow on the roads. As a result, the city is bringing in more sand from a local quarry and will be putting more sand than salt on the streets, Hanson said. Hanson said it might be until Monday before temperatures climb high enough for city streets to get down to bare pavement in many spots. Even so, as of late morning on Wednesday, motorists in the city had access to most of the city, Hanson said. Drifting snow, particularly on the city’s outskirts, could change that as the day wears on. Every state highway in the Cedar Rapids metro area is open and should remain open, Randy Roethlisberger, Iowa Department of Transportation garage operations assistant, reported at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday. Roethlisberger said most of the highways in the metro area – Highway 30, Interstate 380, Highway 151 from Amana to Anamosa and Highway 13 to Central City – are apt to remain snow-packed, but he said he did not expect drifting snow to shut roads because of a lack of snow in ditches prior to the storm. DOT crews had stopped working for a time Wednesday in some parts of the state, but Roethlisberger said that would not be the case in the Cedar Rapids metro area. Linn County road crews started plowing at 4 a.m. Wednesday, and by 11 a.m. they had plowed all the major county roads and most of the residential developments. Crews also were out on gravel roads, reported Pat Keating, the county’s road maintenance supervisor. Keating, however, said the wind is sending drifts of snow back across the plowed roadways, defeating some of the work already completed. Keating said most of what has been plowed is passable, but once the crews come in at 3:30 p.m. for the day, conditions will begin to deteriorate as snow continues to drift. Crews will be back at it at 4 a.m. on Thursday, he said. More Good Stuff |
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