Icy conditions impact travel across the region

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(ABC 6 News) – The snow began to fall again Tuesday night, but it was a different scene throughout the day on Tuesday. Drivers had to deal with slush and ice on the roads.

MnDOT plow drivers were busy all day and night. They say, slush or snow, they are trained and prepared to handle it all.

“You know, it’s not ideal driving conditions but it worked well for the snow plow operators that were out putting down that salt and the temperatures,” Mike Dougherty, spokesperson for MnDOT, said.

Dougherty said slush on the roads on Tuesday is the result of temperatures and the salt used to treat the roads. While it helped to melt the ice away, some drivers still had a tricky time navigating in it.

“It was terrible I mean hard to drive and very slippery. It took way too much time to get everywhere today,” Chunchih Yang of Rochester said.

The conditions caused crashes and spinouts across the state. According to Minnesota State Patrol, there were 472 spinouts, six jackknifed semis and 70 crashes statewide. 4 crashes resulted in injury and none of them were fatal.

MnDOT despatched 102 snow plows across the 11-county region at midnight on Tuesday.

While this storm is a lot different than the one we got just before Christmas, MnDOT said plow drivers adapt to get the job done.

“In another way, it’s very good cause it gives them more experience in terms of variety of weather because they still have to get those roads cleared they just have to use different tools or different methods with those tools. So it’s definitely testing them but the roads look pretty good so I’d say they did well,” Dougherty said.

He added plows will be out Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.