Crews fight frigid temperatures, heavy ice as they work to clear the roads

Some folks remain stuck in their homes following rounds of icy and snowy weather over the weekend, as the frigid temperatures have made clearing the roadways difficult for road crews.

Matt Hughes, the Public Information Officer for District Two of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, says state crews have made progress in getting the primary routes cleared of ice and snow, and those routes take the highest priority for various safety reasons.

Hughes says a lot of roads were pretreated with salt brine, but the problem is, it’s been so cold that it has reduced that pretreatment’s effectiveness. He says what will really help the most now is the sun, as it will activate those salt crystals and start a true melt.

He says the layers of ice and snow have melted some and then have refrozen, making a thick layer of ice that crews are having to contend with in Christian County.

Motorists are urged to extra caution, especially once the sun goes down and temperatures plunge back into the single-digits, and Hughes says they’ll be focusing more on those ‘B-routes’ and ‘C-routes’ in the coming days.

He also urged folks to give those snow plows and other equipment plenty of room to operate—don’t crowd the plow—to make sure motorists and personnel alike stay safe while work happens to get the roads safe for travel once again.