Officials in the Missouri Department of Transportation admitted their crews didn’t pretreat roads before a quick burst of snowfall blanketed the St. Louis region and led to numerous crashes and traffic gridlock on Monday afternoon.
The fast-moving system caused major backups on Missouri interstates that lasted hours in some areas.
MoDOT officials said they expected the snow to arrive in late afternoon. Instead, the first bands of snow began falling shortly before noon.
"This storm came in several hours sooner than expected… Our expectation was this was coming in at 4 o’clock this afternoon," MoDOT St. Louis District Maintenance Engineer Bob Becker said during a Monday news conference. "We didn't get out there. If we would have known it was going to come in at noon, we would have ‘em out first thing this morning. So as this evolved this morning, we got them out as soon as we could."
Becker said his crews were ramping up to return to the interstates Monday evening, when a second round of snow is expected to fall between 7 and 10. He encouraged drivers to avoid travel as much as possible, so plows could treat and clear snow from the roads.
The National Weather Service first issued a Winter Weather Advisory at 9 a.m. Monday for the entire St. Louis area. The agency’s advisory, which went into effect at noon, predicted a band of snow would approach the region around that time and drop anywhere 2 to 4 inches in the metro area. Forecasters said more snow, upward of 5 inches, was likely to fall in Quincy. In Rolla, forecast amounts were 1 to 2 inches. The Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until midnight.
Meanwhile, St. Louis officials said they deployed a “full crew” of 50 Street Department snowplow operators shortly before noon. They said crews were out Monday morning treating roads with chemicals ahead of the storm. They worked to clear main streets first, before moving to school entrances and intersections. After clearing the intersections, crews would then determine if they needed to clear side streets.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department told drivers to avoid travel if possible as a band of moderate-to-heavy snow blanketed the I-70 and I-64 corridor.
“Conditions are deteriorating rapidly,” SLMPD posted on X. “Please avoid travel, if possible. If you must travel, use extreme caution.”
