Madison crews treat roads, anticipate challenging Thursday morning commute

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - A constant curtain of icy precipitation has plagued the Madison area since late last night, sprinkling the roads. The Madison Streets Division anticipates commuting will continue to be a challenge Thursday morning.

Steve Dick drove into Madison from Lodi for the Badgers game against Iowa Wednesday night. He is managing the challenging roads, just like the Streets Division, and followed a simple guideline.

“Just take it slow and easy,” he said.

Madison Streets Division spokesperson Bryan Johnson said over 30 trucks will be out handling salt routes and sanding Wednesday night, with more crews on standby ready to jump in if a crash happens or more trucks are needed.

“We’re putting the salt down on the salt routes like we usually do; we have extra trucks out putting sand down when we can, but it’s still going to be very slippery out there especially because it keeps coming down,” Johnson said

More crews will potentially be added Thursday morning.

“When we get past this worst part of the storm we’re going to reevaluate it really early in the morning so if we have to pivot away from trash recycling pick up, we’ll make an announcement as early as we can, as soon as we know for certain,” Johnson said.

The good news is that crews will not run out of salt anytime soon.

“Actually going to be in a situation where we were more concerned about having too much salt at the end of winter, because our facilities here at Badger Road are being torn down, the salt storage areas,” Johnson said. “Well, winter is helping us out.”

Johnson said it’s a matter of staying patient on the roads as plows stay on top of the salting.

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