Jackson Street Department, TDOT explains snow removal process

JACKSON, Tenn. — The City of Jackson’s Street Department and the Tennessee Department of Transportation put in a lot of effort this past weekend to keep the roadways clear.

The Jackson Street Department successfully cleared the roadways for travel. Their crews worked 12-hour shifts starting Friday evening until the snow was mostly gone. With 7 districts to cover, they prioritized emergency exits, overpasses and main roadways.

We spoke to Street Department Director Johnny Weddle about some of the challenges they experienced over the weekend.

“Some of those districts were kinda divided back up into 6 after we realized that we had one truck that go down. And we kinda challenged that, so it worked out well,” said Weddle.

TDOT was also out pretreating and clearing roads. Their maintenance crews tackled major state routes and interstates. We spoke to Regional Communications Officer for TDOT Nichole Lawrence on what contributed to their success in clearing roads quickly.

“Our employees work year-long to prepare for these winter events. The preparation, the communication, the meetings prior to — pretreating prior to really in turn made for a successful event,” said Lawrence.

Now that we’ve cleared this winter weather event, be wary of potholes. Lawrence explains the process that occurs after snow and ice have melted.

“That is one of the cycles that happens. You know the moisture creeps into the cracks and then they pop out when they thaw, so we make sure that we are in turn amping up our ability to go out there and make those repairs,” said Lawrence.

With higher temperatures on Sunday and the lack of ice, maintenance crews were able to successfully keep the roads clear.

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