How many winter messes will we have to endure this year? Woke up this morning with yet another icy glaze covering sidewalks and streets. The local news is all about the many many accidents on St. Louis interstates. There are even areas where they've closed portions of the highways totally. What bugs me is this was forecast yesterday and especially last night. Here is a link to KMOV's prediction last night. The other stations did the same and yet St. Louis interstates are so bad they've made another morning rush a nightmare.
So here comes MoDOT spokesman Bob Becker holding a press conference and lecturing us on what we already know. He did this a couple of Sundays ago when we had a bad ice storm and accidents were everywhere. He's done it for each winter event we've had, after the weather hit. But if news channels as well as us, know it was coming, what was MoDOT doing?
FOX2 in St. Louis has reporters out on the interstate overpasses giving traffic reports. In Missouri it's all about accidents and slippery surfaces. In the Metro East, the reporter had no accidents to report for drivers on their way into Missouri. "Be aware of the possibility of slick spots" he said, but traffic was moving fine all across the Metro East.
So what is the difference? Again, it just has to be how each of the state DOT's treat the roads and when. Illinois is just so much better at getting ahead of these things than Missouri. It's maddening that MoDOT can't do what IDOT does. Mr. Becker! Go over to IDOT headquarters and find out how they do things to get ahead of things.
I made it into work on 44 just fine, it was wet, but not ice-covered, the moment I got off of 44 on to Jefferson it appeared the city had not even salted Jefferson. I pulled over, put the truck in 4 wheel drive, and moved slowly down to CPH.
Sigh.
Posted by: Paul McCain | February 28, 2019 at 08:46 AM
It's hard to know when to leave on this kind of morning. Too early it may be too icy, too late and back-ups from accidents.
Posted by: Diane Meyer | February 28, 2019 at 10:03 AM
Diane, don't worry, when the County and City merge, these problems will all be a thing of the past.
:/
Posted by: PTMcCain | March 05, 2019 at 01:47 PM