Snowplows Making Slow, Steady Progress

Streets in Lincoln, and roads across Lancaster County, are being cleared slowly after the weekend blizzard.  In Lincoln, the even numbered sides of the residential streets have been plowed, and the parking ban switched to the odd numbered sides at 8 o’clock Monday night. Assistant City Transportation Director Lonnie Burklund said other crews spent much of Monday trying to get arterials as clean as possible before they started re-freezing Monday night.

“We continue to have units out, patrolling and spreading material on arterial routes, dropping blades as well, cleaning up slush.  We had a little bit of help from Mother Nature (Monday) afternoon with some brief periods of sunshine and we continue to move.”

County Engineer Pam Dingman says attention outside of Lincoln has been focused on blacktop roads.

“Today we were fortunate enough to get all roads in Lancaster County clear.  We have about 75% of our pavement down and cleared to dry pavement.”

City Street Maintenance Supervisor Tim Byrne said plow operators have put in a lot of long hours since the storm hit.

“We have been in continual service since the first precipitation rolled into our community” he said.  “Crews have been working long hours.  They do appreciate the Public’s cooperation.  Complying with the parking bans is a huge help to our operators.”

Byrne and Dingman agreed that the cold temperatures are slowing down their operations since rock salt doesn’t work well on ice below about 15 degrees.

Lincoln Police were a little busier than usual Monday.  As of 3:45 PM, the Police Department had responded to 321 calls for service, 41 of them motor vehicle accidents.  Five of those accidents involved injuries, according to Captain Ran Dale, but none were serious injuries.

——————————

Needless to say, it wasn’t the smoothest drive to work and school for many Lincoln residents on Monday morning.

City crews plowed the main arterials during the day on Sunday, but with the overnight refreeze came icy spots on already snow packed streets.  Road conditions in all parts of town caused major delays on 48th Street from Superior Street back as far south as Adams Street.

Semitrailers had difficulty getting up hills on two major streets.

One semi couldn’t make it up the hill heading south on 84th Street at Leighton Avenue, forcing Lincoln Police to detour traffic.  Another semi was heading north on 56th Street between Van Dorn Street and Normal Boulevard, when it became stuck and causing back ups.

City crews were working Monday to maintain normal driving conditions on the main streets, while handling residential plowing operations.