Mayor Conger offers explanation for status of Jackson’s roads
SEE ALSO: POLL: How do you rate road crews’ response to the winter storm?
FROM MAYOR SCOTT CONGER ON 1/28/26:
A lot of people are comparing Jackson’s roads to surrounding counties.
That comparison leaves out two critical facts: we did not get the same storm, and we are responsible for far more roads.
This storm had two parts:
Snow and ice.
They create very different road conditions.
Madison County was in the ice band.
We received snow and sleet, followed by ¼ to ½ inch of freezing rain, with some nearby areas approaching 1 inch of ice. That ice bonds directly to the pavement. It turns roads into sheets of glass. You cannot plow ice, and salt barely works when temperatures stay this cold and skies stay overcast.
Gibson, Chester and McNairy Counties were mostly in the snow band.
They had more snow and much less freezing rain. Snow can be pushed off the road. Ice cannot.
That is why roads cleared faster in those areas:
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Plows could move snow
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Salt could penetrate
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Pavement warmed sooner
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Sun helped melting
Here is why Jackson’s did not:
- Ice sealed the pavement
- Salt had nothing to break into
- Pavement never warmed
- Overcast skies slowed melting
- Hills, curves, and bridges stayed frozen
- Each new layer refroze on top of the last
There is another difference people ignore: scale.
The City of Jackson is responsible for roughly 1,300 lane miles of road.
Surrounding counties have far fewer urban roads to treat and maintain.
That means:
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Fewer intersections
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Fewer hills
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Fewer bridges
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Fewer problem spots
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Less traffic grinding ice into pavement
They can cover their systems faster.
Jackson cannot, even with full crews working around the clock.
This is not a performance issue.
It is a physics and workload issue.
Same crews.
Same equipment.
Different storm.
Much larger road system.
Comparing Jackson to counties that got mostly snow and have far fewer roads is not an apples-to-apples comparison.
Bottom line:
Counties that got snow cleared faster.
Counties that got ice cleared slower.
Jackson got the ice and has far more roads to treat.
That is why our roads look different.
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