ISP worried about hydroplaners now that melting snow is causing floods

Can you remember the last time we had such thick ice on our roads as we do today?

Question is, how are city crews ensuring road safety?

With the thick layer of ice across our area, law enforcement is worried about drivers not taking extra precautions.

If icy roads kept you at home Monday, you were not alone.

Streets, highways and even sidewalks were dangerous for driving or walking.

Now with warmer temperatures, we are seeing snow melt, which brings another issue: flooding.

JR Grotjohn is the Transportation Technician Principal of the Idaho Transportation Department. He said his crew is working diligently to clear the roads.

“Chlorides such as salt, calcium, things of those nature, work best above temperatures of 20 degrees. Now that the temperatures have climbed to effective temperatures for the chlorides to work, I have crews out, being aware of drainage issues,” Grotjohn said.

Crews are plowing as much ice off the roads as they can and trying to melt it. If flooding occurs, they are prepared, Grotjohn said.

“We would do traffic controls to maintain safety and mobility and possibly set up detour routes if it came to that,” Grotjohn said.

Lieutenant Chris Weadick with the Idaho State Police said he is concerned about hydroplaning.

“Today, we’ve investigated a number of slide offs and a number of property damage and some injury crashes. I know that a lot of the counties and the surrounding agencies are also investigating a number of crashes as well,” Weadick said.

He added that a lot of the highways are clear, but the county roads are a problem.

“Right now, we have some pretty unique situations that are occurring, where we have a heavy meltdown, a lot of rain water on top of the snow and ice. We’re seeing hazardous, road conditions out here and we’re seeing a lot of motorists that are driving too fast for those road conditions and they’re following too close,” Weadick said.

If you are caught gunning it on the roads, you will be cited, he said.

“A lot of our motorists think that just because the roadway is posted a certain speed limit that that’s the speed that they’re allowed to drive. You need to drive according to the road conditions; if they’re slick, ice-covered, snow-covered — slow down,” he said.

Idaho Falls’ public information officer said major drainage issues should be reported to the city. The working-hours number is 208-612-8108 and the after-hours number is 208-612-8430.

The city said it will be monitoring drainage for the next few days.