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I drove from Springfield to Chicago last night. I noticed that just about all of the downstate portion of I-55 was nicely plowed. But when we got to the suburbs, the road was a mess. It improved once inside the city.
I don’t know if that means anything or not, but I’m wondering what your experience was yesterday with state and/or local snow removal…
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 2:35 am
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Thank God for automatic 4 wheel drive is my motto and I live in town. I wish I lived in the country just so I could have some fun…..
Comment by Tessa Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 5:42 am
Drove from Champaign to Springfield around 5 pm- it took a little over 2 hours. Saw plows going east on I-72, but not west. The roads were bad. It looked like Sangamon county had plowed but Champaign, Piatt and Macon needed to plow the west bound lanes. Weird thing was, the left lane was usually the clearest, same in town.
Comment by Not Tessa Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 6:47 am
At 5 PM it took me 2 hours to get from Oak Brook to Lombard.
Comment by OneMan Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 7:02 am
i left my house in the south suburbs for a 7pm meeting in the north suburbs at 4. i drove up 57 which was moving nicely (aver. about 35-40 mph) but when 57 merged into 90-94 traffic stopped. by the time i got to the interchange it was 5:30. i made it to the cave by 7. at 7:17, radio 720 mentioned that it would take 2 hours and ten minutes to get to the 90-94 split and my meeting was just a little farther than that!
half an hour later, i got a call telling me that everyone had left! i turned around as soon as i could and made it home by ten. while 90-94 was pokey on the return trip, traffic on 57 south was fairly light (could have been a relative thing)…
Comment by bored now Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 7:32 am
I’m leaving Chicago this morning to drive to Springfield. I’ll let you know how it went.
Comment by On the road again Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 7:49 am
Just be all lucky that in Illinois there are serious political repercussions for faliure during snow. In lovely Dubuque, IA I am pretty sure that the city took a snow day with all the kids.
Comment by George Petruck Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 7:59 am
Picardi should be fired
Comment by Thomas Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 8:16 am
George Petruck
I grew up in Dubuque Iowa. Five inches of snow doesn’t scare people there. I am willing to bet the streets are plowed and all schools are open.
Comment by smh Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 9:00 am
Last night was a joke. Even this morning state roads, marked and unmarked, are still pretty bad in the northern suburbs, with many looking like they have not been touched by a plow at all. The county and local roads are pretty good in comparison. Considering that IDOT had all night to clean up the mess I am very disappointed.
Comment by Bluefish Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 9:18 am
Rich, I had a similar experience coming from the Southwest ‘burbs into the city, (LaGrange Rd., 127th, Cicero, etc.) It was rough sledding until I hit the city limits, where the streets were plowed and patially salted. Sometimes, it really is the “city that works.”
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 9:19 am
I drove from Springfield to Danville late yesterday afternoon. My normal 1.5 hour commute took about 3.5 hours. It was pretty much the worst driving conditions imaginable though there were spots (and I commend the state for doing what the could given the circumstances) along 72 (the ignored Illinois interstate) that had one lane nearly 75% clear around 4:30. I74 from C/U to the state line was atrocious though. Remarkably enough there were little to no accidents and what little of us there were on the road kept our heads on straight so while it was bad…it could have been worse.
Comment by Spfld_Wonket Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 10:12 am
Dear Tessa….if you admitedly live in town and are left wishing you lived in the country so you would have a need for your 4 wheel drive gas guzzler, why in god’s polluted/running out of renewable resources/globally warmed/greenhouse effected earth do you own a 4 wheel-drive?
Comment by thinkbeforeyoubuy Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 10:28 am
It’s the first major snow storm for the manpower short IDOT maintenance crews. They have hired on temporary “snowbirds” who have little or no experience clearing roads or how or when to drop salt or calcium chloride. Perhaps by April they may have a clue on correct way to plow and clear their routes.
Comment by IDOT PRO Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 11:07 am
But Rich, I read your blog daily — and from what I’ve read, Chicago pays no taxes, but gets 97% or so of state services.
So you must be mistaken.
Also, it took me three-and-a-half hours (normally a 40-70 minute drive)on surface streets to get from one suburb to another - but it was still snowing - so they couldn’t exacytly plow. This morning - streets are clear.
Comment by Mohammad Wong Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 12:06 pm
I work in DuPage County and live on the West Side. Roads were miserable in Dupage and western Cook (skipped 88, took Ogden and Cermak all the way in) but great once I hit Broadview and fine all the rest of the way home.
Comment by cermak_rd Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 12:23 pm
I-72 was (mostly) ok from Decatur to Champaign last night and this AM but the local snow removal in both of those towns was just awful. Right off I-72 in both towns the hard packed snow has now converted to solid ice.
Comment by Matt Varble Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 12:44 pm
4 hours from Springfield to Chicago today. There was ice on most bridges up to Pontiac. The exits to the highway are terrible out there. Once you get closer to Will county, things get better.
Comment by Anon Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 1:01 pm
State roads in southwestern illinois were terrible. What happened to IDOT? The diversion of road funds by blogojevich is starting to have an impact.
Comment by ron Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 1:48 pm
They did a better job here than at Midway, sad to say.
Comment by God's Country Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 3:05 pm
Municipality and state roads fine in west suburbs.
Comment by leigh Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 3:08 pm
Well, the thing is - in town I still need my truck “so you would have a need for your 4 wheel drive gas guzzler, why in god’s polluted/running out of renewable resources/globally warmed/greenhouse effected earth do you own a 4 wheel-drive”. They plow 3 roads where I live good enough for people to drive on and leave the rest a hazard. Plus, if I need to, I can go pick up people who suddenly “can’t make it in to work because the roads are too bad”. I make it so people don’t have excuses - aren’t I mean?
And, “thinkbeforeyoubuy”, my long-term plan is not to stay here, but to go where I need my truck, so thank you for worrying about why I own it. I love it, I pay for it, so don’t worry about me. And I need it where I live, because they don’t plow worth crap.
Comment by Tessa Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 4:04 pm
IDOT and Cook County roads were still pretty bad this morning in n/nw burbs. Local roads, as always, were spotless. Wonder why the state and county force jurisdictional transfers of roads?
Comment by Rod's Hair Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 4:14 pm
State roads in the Quad Cities were bad last night but great this morning. According to WGN nightly news, more than nine inches of snow fell at Midway by 9 p.m. Thursday compared to four at O’Hare. Streets in cities are more time-consuming to plow because of parked vehicles and no place to pile the snow. Plows on rural roads don’t have cars to plow around and just push the white stuff into the ditches.
Comment by Puzzler Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 5:01 pm
Well, it took nearly four hours Chicago to Springfield, but it wasn’t because of road conditions. Bad traffic in the burbs.
Worst part related to the snow was the salt spray in the Chicago area kept messing up my windshield and needed to be washed off every five minutes.
Comment by On the road again Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 5:07 pm
Cheers, no delay in finding my corner stool last evening. Seems San. runs fine sans Sanchez….
Comment by Barstool Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 5:46 pm
I don’t know why, but for some reason central IL does not know how to use a plow or a salt truck. Roads in Springfield were ridiculously bad and unplowed. It’s not as though the snow was unexpected, and had this been Chicago they would have had the trucks ready. For some reason towns in the central part of the state have not come up to speed with the ideas of plowing to keep up with the snow and salting BEFORE it ices over…
Comment by NI80 Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 6:15 pm
Took me three hours yesterday to get through a commute that normally would take 20 minutes.
So many of the Chicago side streets still aren’t plowed or salted. So I get mad when I hear suburbanites whining about the roads. Really, shut up…you’ve got an SUV…and get off my tail!
Comment by Graydog Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 6:56 pm
Any word on how the Gov’s new heated driveway worked?
Comment by Anon Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 10:04 pm
Caronbdale still had lots of areas unplowed yesteday morning. Outside of C’dale, roads were fine. made it to Cape in just under an hour. As of this morning, a number of C’dale side streets were still snowcovered.
Comment by SLThorne Saturday, Dec 10, 05 @ 6:08 pm
I bet the $720,000 heated driveway didn’t work as the state is so far behind paying its bills that the electricity was probably shut off.
Comment by bricklayer Saturday, Dec 10, 05 @ 10:44 pm
Friday-Saturday’s storm found state and county roads in horrible rutted shape in NW suburbs. I’m assuming they salted (if at all) too early, making a wrong call on the storm.
A Daily Herald editor was even out in it commented on the horrid shape of Algonquin Road.
Municipal and township roads were wet from salt by 6am Saturday.
Comment by The Colonel Sunday, Dec 11, 05 @ 9:25 am
Whoops, I forgot.
I also heard that Mansion driveway was snow-covered because the Gov blew a 30 amp fuse when he plugged his hair-dryer in!
Comment by The Colonel Sunday, Dec 11, 05 @ 9:28 am
Let us all pray to God that this is the first and last snow event of the winter season. The reality at IDOT is equipment that should have been replaced in normal cycles wasn’t. This administration reduced the fleet nearly 40% for fear they were being used unethically and weren’t necessary along with taking equipment money an reallocating it. The deprivation of the equipment combined with an inexperienced plow force adds to less than adequate removal of snow. The experienced snow and 6 month temps were all Republicans so they were not hired back. They were replaced by Democrats who have little to no experience. Thus removal takes longer and is not as effective. The reality is the more snow the more difficult the job of removal will be because of deteriorating equipment and new snow removers. I assure you three or four major events will be devestating to the Department of Transportation mechanically and financially.
Comment by muletown Sunday, Dec 11, 05 @ 9:44 am
Well, I have lived in Chicago for many years and the conditions of the city streets downtown (Loop and River North) were the worst they have been in recent memory. As of 9:30 at night, Wacker, Dearborn and the parts of LSD that I drove on still had not been touched by any snowplows. In fact, driving through downtown around 8 I noticed not ONE snowplow! Say what you will, but Commissioner Sanchez would have never let this happen and in fact did not let this happen. But for my 4WD vehicle, I would have not been able to get around at all Thursday night. Chicago is known as the city that works - let’s hope it doesn’t become that city that used to work! God forbid, maybe patronage does work!!
Comment by Anon Sunday, Dec 11, 05 @ 7:31 pm
I hope everybody takes care and takes their time. No need to rush to get to where you’re going–everyone else will be late too.
(I’m out of town so I missed the snow. Mid 70s with a chance of falling metal, here. But we have II MEF to clear the roads. Rich, throw a snowball for me, huh?)
Comment by Didymous Sunday, Dec 11, 05 @ 8:17 pm