Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Streets and roads in Benton and Washington counties should see a major melt-off today as temperatures are expected to climb above freezing.
“If the sun helps melt off some of it I expect by (today) 90 percent of our stuff should be good to go,” said Terry Nalley, administrator of public services for Benton County.
Many streets and roads were glazed over with ice during the Monday morning commute, but surface conditions started to get better through the day as the sun came out and vehicle traffic melted snow and ice in many places.
“I’m getting tired of this winter,” said Frankie Guyll, street supervisor for the city of Rogers.
Bella Vista
The Street Department worked the snow-covered and slick streets Saturday through Monday, Mayor Frank Anderson.
“It takes 3 1/2 days to get to all the roads worked in Bella Vista,” Anderson said. “It’s physically impossible to get to all of the more than 500 miles of roads in a day.”
Police responded to some minor accidents Sunday, Chief Ken Farmer said. Fire Chief Steve Sims said his department responded to 14 calls between Saturday night and Monday morning. Most were medical calls, but fire trucks responded to three or four minor fires during that period.
Benton County
Fayetteville Pipes
Fayetteville city workers had responded to roughly three dozen calls about frozen water pipes by midday Monday, according to David Jurgens, city utilities director.
The city is responsible for damage to main water and sewer lines, but pipes running from a meter to someone’s house or business are the property owner’s responsibility.
Jurgens advised residents to close all crawl space and basement vents and shut their garage doors to prevent frozen pipes. Insulation and heat tape can be installed — especially on pipes near exterior walls — to prevent freezing, too. City officials in a news release advised residents to leave heaters on low, open cabinet doors and let water drip from at least one faucet if they planned to leave their homes. Customers whose water meters have frozen before could pack newspaper, leaves or insulation around their meters during the warmest part of the day.
Customers with frozen pipes can call the Fayetteville Water and Sewer Operations Division at 479-575-8386 between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Jurgens said localized freezing can often be thawed with a hair dryer. He discouraged residents, however, from using an open flame or electrical charge to thaw frozen pipes.
Source: Staff Report
The cold affected some Road Department equipment on Monday, Nalley said.
“We’ve got five motor graders that have ‘gelled up,’” he said. “The fuel has turned to gel and they won’t start. Our mechanics are working on them, trying to get them started.”
The trucks and graders are all heated and the only time crews are exposed to the cold temperatures is when they load salt, Nalley said.
“They have to be outside when they’re loading salt because we’re still using bags,” Nalley said. “We haven’t been able to buy salt in bulk. We’re hoping to be able to buy in bulk and take care of that. There’s maybe five minutes when they have to be out there, then they get to get back inside.”
One county dump truck turned on its side after sliding off a road Sunday. The driver suffered some “bumps and bruises” but otherwise the county was handling the cold, Nalley said.
The county Road Department is responsible for 1,755 miles of roads, according to Cindy Jones, road coordinator. Of that, 846 miles are dirt, 104 miles paved with chip and seal and 805 miles are asphalt. The department has 71 employees.
Lt. Thomas See with the Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to 11 calls concerning motor vehicle accidents. Two of the accidents involved injuries, See said.
Deputies responded to several other calls concerning vehicles sliding off roads, but there were no injuries or damage to the vehicles.
“They just needed a tow truck to be pulled out,” See said.
Bentonville
The cold temperatures hadn’t caused equipment problems, but the extreme cold does lengthen the process of getting streets back to normal, said Tony Davis, city street manager.
It will be hard for the ice to melt naturally until negative wind chill factors disappear, he said.
“The salt doesn’t work below 20 degrees, so until we get some warmer temperatures and direct sunlight, it will be a slow process,” he said.
Streets had some stretches of clear spots, but most of them were still layered with snow and ice, Davis said Monday morning.
Street Department employees are working in 12-hour shifts to continue to work on streets, Davis said.
The only reported accident as of 11 a.m. Monday took place on a side road, Stonehenge Drive. One car was stopped and another slide into it on a hill, said police Lt. Michael Martin.
Fayetteville
Conditions on main streets, such as College Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, improved Monday afternoon with sunshine and steady traffic. Frigid temperatures kept a thin layer of ice on the streets longer than normal, however.
“It probably took until 11 o’clock for stuff to start melting,” said Terry Gulley, transportation services director.
Many residential streets were frozen throughout the day and impassable for some vehicles.
City crews spread sand to give drivers more traction, and at least one road grader scraped ice from city streets. Gulley said salt brine and beet juice are ineffective melting ice when temperatures are close to zero.
“Hopefully, (today’s) warmer temperatures will help more than anything else,” Gulley added.
Rogers
No streets were closed in the city on Monday, but police spokesman Keith Foster said police responded to about 30 wrecks between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. Roads were slick, and drivers struggled to keep cars from sliding into ditches, into poles or into other cars. Police reported more accidents overnight Sunday than during the first day of the previous winter storm in December.
“We are doing everything possible with the temperatures as low as they are,” Guyll said. “The roads are passable, but very slick.”
Springdale
Streets were partly to mostly clear about mid-afternoon Monday, said Sam Goade, public works director, and Terry Anderson, street supervisor.
The city pretreated many main thoroughfares and used belly plows to further clear streets. Crews spread chat Monday on areas that were still icy.
Springdale maintains about 161 miles of streets.
Washington County
Shawn Shrum, assistant road superintendent for the county, said crews worked more of the secondary, dirt roads on Monday. Crews on Sunday hit the roads that affected the most people.
“There’s still a lot of patchy, slick spots. We’re getting off what we can get off,” Shrum said. “We’re hoping the sun and warmer temperatures (today) will help.”
The county resupplied its three gravel staging locations before the latest round of weather moved into the area over the weekend. The county traditionally uses a chipped gravel rather than salt and sand, Shrum said.
“It’s cheaper and it works fine to give traction,” Shrum said.
The county maintains 408 miles of paved roads and 524 miles of gravel roads. There are 80 employees.
Lynn Atkins, Melissa Gute, Tracy Neal, Scarlet Sims, Tom Sissom, Joel Walsh and Ron Wood contributed to this report.