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Crews deploy and plow snow covered roads
Road crews were faced with an icy dilemma. The snowfall made many highways difficult to travel but removing it didn't exactly remove the risk. FOX 7 Austin's Rudy Koski explains.
AUSTIN, Texas - A bright blue sky hung over snow packed roadways Monday morning. There was no rush hour in Austin; just a steady crawl. Cody Christianson, who has a 4 wheel drive truck offered simple advice for those thinking of venturing onto the roads.
"Don’t get out here, I wouldn't be out here, unless I lived right here, so I’m just coming up here to get some gas for emergency purposes," said Christianson.
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TXDOT deployed road grading equipment to move the snow off major roadways. Ranch Roads and Interstates were targeted; along with key overpasses. Scraping away a path, along 10,000 miles of roadway in the Austin metro, included an icy dilemma.
"We are discovering that the roads are still icy underneath that snow, so what we are asking folks to do right now is stay at home because we are experiencing slick conditions, even as the crews are out the treating and retreating," said TxDOT spokesperson Alex Navarro.
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Driving conditions on area roadways
FOX 7 Austin's Kacey Bowen has more on the conditions on the roads.
Drone video shows how snow covered every roadway in the area. Local intersections and neighborhoods as well as downtown. At the Texas Capitol it was hard to see where 11th St ended and the south grounds began. Those spots were left for city public works crews.
Emergency vehicles maneuvered through the snow and responded to calls. As that work was done, a group of friends came to the aid of Delisa Urenda who had a flat tire near the intersection of Hwy 183 and Capitol of Texas. She had been trying to help others.
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"I was stranded all night actually, slept in the car. I was doing Lyft all night, so I was helping other people get home ... and then I couldn't get home," said Urenda.
This icy job is not limited to Central Texas. TX DOT tells FOX7 that the agency has about 80,000 miles of roadway to manage.