Spring snowstorms are not all that unusual in
Kansas. But they certainly aren’t very welcomed either. A recent sleet and snow
storm hit Wichita (and much of the state) in late March but I’d have to say,
our metro area was very lucky.
On Thursday (the eve o’ the storm), maintenance
crews were out doing their normal thing: one was patching concrete on an
interstate ramp, another cleaned storm water drains on an elevated highway, one
did dirt work on a roadside ditch and another was sanding drywall in a new
meeting and training room. The Wichita TV media wanted footage of our crews
prepping for the storm but alas, it was only in the last hour of the day that
crews converted their dump trucks to snow plows.
That night we saw rain but it eventually turned to
sleet. After about two or three inches of sleet and gropple, crews had the
roads cleared of ice and slush but a layer of slickness remained. Late morning
of day two brought heavy snow with a hard north wind. But a funny thing
happened that afternoon – the sun came out and the storm was over! It still
took a number of hours to clean up the highways but really, it was a pretty
workable storm for our crews.
Not so much though for the surrounding counties.
Freezing rain contributed to a number of crashes west, north, east and south of
the Wichita metro. Virtually all highways to the west of Wichita were closed
for at least a day. Pratt and Kingman counties accumulated over two feet of
snow and some pretty huge snowdrifts.
KDOT’s 511 system performed valiantly but somewhere
along the line sagged due to its popularity. Online viewing was hampered by
extra-slow loading of highway condition maps and for some strange reason, our
text list of Closed Highways gives a pretty good description of sections closed
– it just forgets to list the highway number. Odd. The phone version of 511 was
great even though some callers heard busy signals (switches at the phone
company couldn’t handle the load). All this is being discussed and hopefully,
fixed.
Follow-up to the storm will take a number of weeks.
In the metro, crews have replaced signs and markers that were wiped out.
Guardrail and light poles sometimes take a little longer to replace. We’re
ready to get back to “normal” spring chores now – please.