The Door County Highway Department dealt with low visibility and equipment breakdowns to keep the roadways clear on Monday. One grader suffered mechanical problems and Door County Highway Commissioner John Kolodziej says the crews focused on clearing the roadways until 7 pm on Monday and returned to plowing at one o’clock Tuesday morning.
29 plow trucks and graders are being used to maintain the highways and county roads during and after the storm, according to Kolodziej. Reportedly up to twelve inches of snow fell in parts of Door County on Monday.
4:30 A.M REPORT FROM JOHN KOLODZIEJ
Door County Highway Department crews continued snow and ice control operations at 1:30 AM this morning from yesterdays 10 to 12 inches of snowfall.
At the completion of yesterdays operations, all State, all County, and most town roadways were plowed, but ongoing drifting quickly filled in behind the plows.
As of 4:30 AM, the temperature is -4 degrees, with light winds WSW at 6 mph. A very light snow is falling.
Forecast indicates a high temperature of 0 degrees today, with winds increasing to low 20 mph, with gusts up to the low 30 mph beginning at 12 noon. At 3 pm today wind chills are forecast to be -23 degrees, and dropping from there.
All roads continue to be snow covered and slippery. Crews have been concentrating on State and County roads and high priority town roads.
Many low volume roadways have not been plowed yet, and are snow covered with drifts.
Crews are in the process of plowing the school lots and should be completed by 5 AM. A sand/salt mixture will be applied in lieu of salt due the low temperatures.
The cold conditions make salt use very ineffective, and crews will be applying sand/salt mixture on hills, curves and intersections throughout the day.
The cold conditions are creating a higher than usual mechanical problems with equipment, which is slowing the clean-up efforts.
With the forecast for colder weather for the next few days, all roads will continue to have hard pack snow on them, until temperatures increase to the point that would allow equipment to remove and chemicals to be effective.
All motorists are advised to slow down, and travel very cautiously considering the road conditions.
