Winter storm forces highway closure
Interstate shut down between Baker City and La Grande early Thursday
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Friday, January 11, 2008 12:26 PM PST
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| Packed snow covers a local roadway Wednesday. A series of snowstorms across the region forced Oregon Department of Transportation officials to close down Interstate 84 between Baker City and La Grande Thursday. Locally, ODOT crews were making progress in a battle to clear roadways of snow and ice. |
ONTARIO - In what is becoming a familiar scenario, the Oregon Department of Transportation closed Interstate 84 between Baker City and La Grande Thursday after a truck crashed in Ladd Canyon, and blowing snow created white-out conditions.
The tanker truck flipped over in the westbound lanes, about 6 a.m. (MST), Tom Strandberg, ODOT spokesperson in La Grande, said. Crews were able to have the freeway reopened later in the morning, as winds died down and the accident scene was cleared, Strandberg said. A HazMat team was called to the scene because the tanker was hauling a flammable material but no spill was discovered.
In addition, high winds were causing zero visibility at the top of Ladd Canyon. Strandberg said the freeway has been closed about a half dozen times this winter and four or five of those were major delays that lasted several hours.
“It’s a real Eastern Oregon winter,” Strandberg said.
Closer to home, ODOT Region 14 crews — who work the roadways throughout Malheur County — were making progress on a never-ending battle to remove ice and snow from highways.
“Conditions are getting better,” Tom Busche, ODOT Region 14 assistant maintenance manager, said.
Still there were some lingering problems Thursday afternoon, Busche said.
“We ran out of de-icer,” Busche said, but a new shipment arrived Thursday, and was distributed around the district.
That began to help, breaking the bond between the ice and the pavement, Busche said.
Temperatures were not quite high enough to help maintenance crews finish the job.
“It’s not good,” Busche said. Busche specifically warned motorists to be careful of shaded areas on the road, where there is little or no melting and the snow and ice have built up.
“People need to be aware,” he said.
The number of accidents were substantially down Thursday from Wednesday, Busche said, but one area still seeing a lot of crashes was the Burnt River Canyon area.
“People are over-driving road conditions,” Busche said.
