Are your roads clear?
AMARILLO, TEXAS -- UPDATE:
Amarillo city plows are continuing to clear the streets Thursday night into Friday morning, but not everyone is happy about snow still on the roads.
There are nearly 1,000 miles of roads within the city of Amarillo. When the snow first fell the priority was for the areas around the hospital, then the arterial roads.
Now crews are working on opening up those left hand lanes and spots in the median. "At your intersections, your left turn lane, right now if cars aren't in the left turn lane, the turn signal doesn't switch, so we're trying to get that left turn lane cleared," said Chris Mitchell, City of Amarillo Street Superintendent. They're also clearing up school zones, after they received calls from parents trying to pull into snow covered zones. Mitchell addressed that issue by saying, "we're going to try and go back, make sure those curb lanes are open so people can pull over and drop off their kids."
Dropping off snow is something the city also does. It takes those big piles, from downtown only, and puts them on city owned lot on 3rd and Pierce.
"The snow that's been pulled up where it's shaded by the tall buildings, if you don't get it removed, it will never melt." But those big piles don't make sense to everyone. We asked you on Facebook about how you think the city is doing. Paula said "It would be so much better if they'd clear it to the side and allow the centers of the roads to be usable." But Valerie replied, "They put it in the middle because if they plow to the sides, they block people's driveways, therefore they get complaints about that because people don't want to shovel it out." Stephen didn't see any shoveling he posted, "They cleared the roads? Where?" But it's a mixed bag, as Alice said, "I don't think they did such a good job. I saw people getting stuck this morning, I did notice that the city did put dirt down around Greenways school for that I am thankful." Yet, at the time of publishing, 56% of people who answered our web poll said the city did not do a good job.
As the snow melts, if you need to report a pothole, you can call the city at 378-6815.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED:
Six and a half inches of snow doesn't melt overnight, especially when the temperatures are still below freezing. That means the Amarillo city roads you're driving on are packed with snow, but what are they doing to get rid of it? We spoke with the city today and it says it has crews out laying down salt and sand. They're trying to find slick spots before the drivers do. Specifically Thursday, it's taking care of downtown roads. The city says it is tricky because there is so much snow. So where do they put it? We'll tell you tonight.
Plus, they are also checking plow routes, with arterials being the big focus Thursday. Residential areas are their lowest priority. The city says it knows about the holes in the ice between Pinnacle and Hollywood along Coulter. It said it was taking care of those problems as well.
When it comes to your highways, TxDOT says all the interstates have been taken care of, but they're still asking drivers to use care on bridges and over-passes because of slick spots. On Thursday they were focusing on clearing secondary roads, FM & RM. If you see a pot hole from all that snow and want it taken care of, we'll tell you who you can call tonight at 10:00 p.m.
