Tuesday was a bad day to be out on the roads, but road commission crews across northern Michigan are working tirelessly to make sure the roads are safe for those who do need to be out.
“We see all kinds of different weather conditions, so it’s just another day for us,” said Clare County Road Commission Managing Director Dewayne Rogers.
Rogers said around midnight on Tuesday, the night patrol foreman called in crews once the roads started to get bad.
“We had 19 guys come in at midnight and they’ve been working ever since,” he said. “We have five guys to come in at normal starting time today so they’ll be fresh for tonight. The other guys, we’ll keep them going as long as we can, but we don’t want to obviously overdo it.”
What needs to be salted first depends on their priority roads.
“We have an obligation to take care of our state highways, and that’s our first priority,” said Rogers. “Then we have our primary paved roads we take care of, and then our secondary paved and then we finish off with our gravels and our subdivisions.”
Between the state roads and the county roads, Rogers said they’re looking to use about 800 to 1,000 tons of salt on the roads, just on Tuesday.
“We did a late order that just came in a couple weeks ago,” he said. “We monitor it and make sure we’re doing ok but we’re prepared.”
All that preparation is to help keep drivers safe on the road.
“Give us room on the roads and know that we’re out there,” said Rogers. “We’re working and doing the best that we can ,so just be patient with us.”
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