COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Missouri Department of Transportation is preparing statewide for a large winter system moving in this weekend.
“We had a winter weather conference call this morning at 9 a.m. with the Weather Service, the Highway Patrol, all our partners,” said Darin Hamelink, MoDOT’s State Maintenance Director. “So yeah, we’re gearing up in terms of our drivers, equipment, salt, all that.”
The ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Team has issued a Weather Alert Day for Saturday night through Monday morning. Snow and ice are expected to start falling on Mid-Missouri on Saturday evening. Several inches of snow could accumulate along with ice.
The system will dump more ice in the south and more snow in the north.
Despite the advanced preparations, MoDOT tells ABC 17 News that clearing the roads will still take some time due to staffing issues.
“We are still several hundred drivers short to fill all our trucks for two shifts,” Hamelink said. “So we run 12-hour shifts back to back basically until we get roads back to near normal.”