Following the winter storm to begin the week, county road crews have been working 12-hour shifts through the night and day to clear roadways and prepare for another round of inclement weather on Wednesday and Thursday.
Though sunshine did help melt some of that snow and ice Tuesday, county officials said the chance of roadways re-freezing overnight could make for dangerous driving conditions over the next couple of days.
County Engineer Mark Brasher said Tuesday that freezing overnight temperatures following the Monday snowstorm caused some issues in completely clearing county roadways.
“The roads still aren’t in the shape we’d like them to be,” Brasher said. “We worked 12-hour shifts yesterday and as the temperature dropped last night, everything we were able to melt had frozen back over. Now we’ve got a layer of ice over the snow we got.”
Daviess County Emergency Management Agency (DCEMA) Director Andy Ball said county road crews were able to clear up most of the priority routes on Tuesday, including highways 231, 431, 60 and 54.
Ball said black ice on re-frozen roadways was one of his biggest concerns for Wednesday. With the most heavily-used roadways having been cleared, Ball said a second round of snow would be most dangerous when driving across bridges and overpasses, as those tend to freeze over even when the rest of the roadway doesn’t.
“Today the focus was on our primary A, B and C routes,” Ball said. “Tonight, the state will focus on secondary routes.”
Daviess County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Major Barry Smith said DCSO responded to a high number of vehicles sliding off the road during Tuesday morning’s commute. He asked the community to avoid driving if they could and recommended keeping a number of items in the car — such as water, a blanket and a charged cell phone — in case of an emergency, as it would take deputies longer to respond if there were a high number of calls.
Brasher said road crews would be continually working to get as much as they could done ahead of the potential for more snow and ice Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
“The latest forecast predicted two to three inches. We’ll be ready for that,” he said. “We’ll have a crew working 12-hour shifts throughout the day. My advice would be, don’t get out unless you have to.”
Here’s what to know about which roads will be a priority for snow removal crews across Owensboro-Daviess County.
City of Owensboro priority routes: Click here
Daviess County priority routes: Click here
KYTC priority routes for Daviess County: Click here
