Lubbock, South Plains road crews working overnight but warn drivers of ice danger Wednesday

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Public officials are warning of the danger of ice on roadways Wednesday morning after Tuesday’s snow has started to melt. While road crews from the City of Lubbock and TxDOT will be monitoring and treating roadways as needed, drivers are still encouraged to do their part to keep everyone safe.

“We want to urge the public to be aware,” Public Works Director Wood Franklin said. “It may look clear, ice can be black ice. It can be hard to see and the roads will probably be slick tomorrow where they really weren’t this morning. We just encourage the public to give a distance between them and the car in front of them and just give a little extra stopping distance and travel cautiously.”

Franklin said his crews have been working 12-hour shifts since the precipitation started falling Tuesday morning on the City of Lubbock’s 17 salt and sand spreaders. He added those crews are scheduled to work until Thursday if needed.

“Our plan going forward, which obviously it can change depending on the weather, is the Emergency Operations Center is scheduled to stand up around 4 a.m. prior to the morning rush, anticipating the colder weather this evening is going to cause all this melt to freeze and have icy conditions tomorrow morning,” Franklin said.

TxDOT has advised the public its crews will be working overnight to monitor state roads but that drivers should expect icy road conditions. The City of Lubbock has placed barricades along roadways such as Loop 289, the Marsha Sharp Freeway, and Interstate 27 to help with shutting down those roads as necessary.

“Those barricades are set out early, prior to the winter storm coming in and they’ll remain there until we’re clear of this winter weather,” Franklin said.

Once the storm and threat of dangerous roads have passed, Franklin tells KCBD those road crews will then work to remove the salt and sand.

“We don’t want that going into our playa lake and that sort of situation,” Franklin said. “Once it clears up, once the winter storm’s over with, you will see a lot of street sweepers out there and actually picking all this material back up.”

To see the latest TxDOT road conditions, click here.

To see the City of Lubbock emergency communications, click here.

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