DOT clearing roads, Highway Patrol seeing few wrecks

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 11, 2011

By Sarah Campbell
scampbell@salisburypost.com
North Carolina Department of Transportation crews are currently working to clear roads across the county.
“Right now we’re plowing off the interstate and primary routes,” John Thomason, transportation supervisor for Rowan County DOT branch, said. “The secondary roads are still pretty slick, they are still pretty well ice covered.”
Thomason said crews have already cleared Innes Street and Jake Alexander Boulevard. He said crews will tackle secondary roads after primary routes are clear, but it’s unclear when that will be.
Right now, he said, there are 28 trucks with spreaders and plows, four contract trucks with spreaders about 10 trucks with graders.
Thomason said his crews are using the plows to scrape the roads and spreaders to distribute salt.
Most people are heeding the warnings of transportation officials and law enforcement and staying off the roads.
The N.C. Highway Patrol has responded to four collisions since midnight, Sgt. B.E. Hower. The agency investigated around 30 accidents Monday between 5:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., but none with serious injuries.
“The call volumes have been comparatively light,” Hower said. “I think people are doing the right thing, so we aren’t having a bunch of collisions.”