Little accumulation, big trouble for commute

BALTIMORE - By mid-morning, the effects of the monster commute still lingered on the Baltimore Beltway, and employees at Dental Dreams in Edmondson Village had already weathered the nightmare drive to work.

"It takes me about an hour to get to work.  So today, it took me an hour and 30 minutes.  Everybody basically was in stop and go traffic.  No accidents, but everybody made it seem like it was a blizzard or something."

"It usually takes me five minutes in the car, but it took me 15 minutes to get here, which made me 15 minutes late for my shift, because my whole street was backed up."

Yes, the state still has plenty of snowplows, heavy-duty trucks and salt domes filled with tons of the stuff, but even a smidgen of snow wreaked havoc on the roads.
 
"The crews were out.  We were ready.  This is not the type of storm where pre-treating would have worked because the pavement temperatures were too low, and basically if we had sprayed anything on the roads, it would have frozen.  So that would have been a real big problem as well."

Once the snow stops falling, the state’s goal is to have the roads cleared to bare pavement within four hours, and it appears the crews will barely have time to catch their breath before the time clock starts ticking again.

"We are anticipating tomorrow there potentially being the same problem for evening rush hour.  So let's take a lesson from this and get ready and prepare, because if schools are letting out early or during the storm and people are leaving work, we could potentially have an even worse gridlock if cars are on the road and our crews can't get the salt down."

Adding to this morning’s gridlock---sun glare, a few accidents along major arteries and delayed school openings.

But as with any snowfall, the State Highway Administration says motorists should plan more time into their drives and stay clear of snowplows so they can get the job done.