Winters in the St. Louis area are often unpredictable. The Missouri Department of Transportation is prepared to work around the clock before and during a winter storm to ensure a safe commute for area motorists.
MoDOT’s St. Louis region will have more than 200 snow-removal trucks equipped with plows, wing plows, salt brine and rock salt spreaders to fight winter weather. More than 400 employees will work 12-hour shifts around the clock to get the roads safe and passable as quickly as possible. Motorist Assist crews are also staffed to respond to incidents. The St. Louis region maintains 6,400 lane miles of state-owned interstate highways, numbered and lettered routes. To give you an idea of how many miles that is, if you were to take our roadways and stretch them out to one lane, it would go from New York to San Francisco and back.
Winter plowing operations
During an average snowfall, more than 200 trucks snow-removal trucks equipped with plows, wing plows, salt brine and rock salt spreaders will be used to fight snow, ice and frost in the St. Louis area. MoDOT currently has over 30,000 tons of salt on hand. The St. Louis region also has a new piece of equipment called a tow plow It is a trailer snowplow pulled by a standard snowplow. It can cut a 30-foot swath or 2.5 lanes of pavement.
Priorities for MoDOT snow-removal operations:
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Priority 1: Highest traffic-volume roadways are cleared first, including interstates and other major routes.
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Priority 2: Heaviest-traveled sections of state numbered and lettered routes like Lindbergh (Rte. 61/67), Olive (Rte. 340) and Page Ave. (Rte. 364).
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Priority 3: Lower-volume, lettered or numbered routes. MoDOT will plow loose snow to two-way passable traffic and treat the hills, curves and intersections.
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Priority 4: After the storm, workers clean up accumulation on shoulders, bridge edges and interchanges during normal working hours.
Crews use a towplow to clear multiple interstate lanes.
Safety Tips for driving in the snow:
- Slow down. When there is ice or snow on the road, reduce your speed by at least one-half of the speed limit. When the roads are wet, reduce your speed by at least one-third of the speed limit.
- Turn your headlights on.
- Stay back at least 100 feet from snowplows.
- Since the roads in the best condition are behind the plows, your safest place to drive is behind the plows.
- Do not pass or drive beside snowplows.
Road Condition Information:
- MoDOT reminds motorists to check its online Traveler Information Map:
*The map will be updated continuously throughout the storm to show whether major roads are covered, partly covered, closed or mostly clear.
- Missouri State Highway Patrol Hotline (recorded road-condition information) at 1-800-222-6400
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- MoDOT Customer Service (live person 24/7) at 1-888-ASK MODOT (1-888-275-6636).