Icy road conditions slowing power restorations in Washington County

 

WASHINGTON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Officials at the Washington County Highway Department have a full crew out salting the roads to deal with icy conditions. 

They say they have been preparing for this for this since last night. Crews were out throughout the night salting the roads as well. They say they have not seen a lot of spinouts or accidents due to the weather. We Energies says they have restored power to 4,000 people already, but it's taking longer than usual because of the conditions on the roads 

Patrol Superintendent Tom Schmidt says it's important that they continue to put down salt when there is freezing rain. 

"Normally in that condition, the freezing rain, the salt will hold up for 2-3 hours and then after that we need to reapply and some of the higher volume roads get more attention in a freezing rain situation. We need to monitor everything and it's quite an extensive operation and freezing rain and everything rinsing out all the time," said Tom Schmidt with the Washington County Highway Department. 

Schmidt says they hope conditions are good enough that they can start scaling back trucks around 9:00 or 10:00 Thursday night, but will still have some crews out overnight.