Low Temperatures WILL Make Wet Roads Become BLACK ICE
(February 7, 2010) – Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) crews have worked day and night tackling snow and ice clean up on state highways. Crews have managed to get some lanes open. However many roads, including sections of interstates, such I-95 and I-495, are still snow packed.
“No matter whether a road is wet, slushy or snow packed today, road surfaces will mostly likely turn to ice tonight and tomorrow morning. Air and pavement temperatures will be in the teens, which makes salt much less effective,” said SHA Administrator Neil J. Pedersen. “We’ve said it before but we need to say it again, stay home. Let road crews continue to remove snow without vehicles impeding the process.”
Motorists need to remain on alert for varying conditions – without warning, mainline travel lanes may be narrowed or completed eliminated by encroaching snow. Acceleration and deceleration lanes can abruptly end with snow piled up to eight feet. Along secondary roads, especially in urban areas, not all lanes will be open and turn lanes are restricted or piled with snow. SHA today is focusing on removing the snow pack, which is extremely time consuming and difficult. Crews using front end loaders will scrape the ice off the pavement surface and break it up, while plow truck drivers will push the chunks to the side.
As crews continue to remove snow and ice from road surfaces, salt will be applied. However, until temperatures climb above 25 degrees, its effectiveness will be limited.
For the latest weather and road conditions and to view live traffic cameras during the clean up, citizens can log onto
www.roads.maryland.gov and click on CHART. Customers may also follow SHA on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/mdsha or call the Winter Storm hotline at 1-800-327-3125 for a regularly updated message with weather and roadway conditions. If you need to report a non-emergency issue for SHA, please log onto the website and click on the Service Request link from the “Contact Us” page.
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