Road crews find it tough to break the ice

By Scott Welton

scottw@standard-democrat.com

SIKESTON -- Area road crews are not letting things slide; it's just hard to break the ice until things warm up.

"We at the city of Sikeston are set up to push snow and slush, but cutting into the ice is difficult given our utility limitations in the street corridor," said Jay Lancaster, director of Sikeston's Department of Public Works. "Here at the city we utilize plows that have a rubber-bottom blade. These serve as a 'pushing' blade but not as a 'cutting' blade. The primary reason we utilize rubber blades is to accommodate the many manholes we have in our city streets. Some of the manholes have a slight elevation difference and even a slight difference -- a half inch to one inch -- could cause real issues if we used steel blades."

Lancaster recalled from his time working for the Missouri Department of Transportation as the Southeast District transportation planning coordinator that MoDOT is able to use steel blades because the roads they service typically do not have manholes.

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