Nebraska roads recover after weekend winter blast

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by Dara Newson

Story Created: Mar 11, 2013 at 8:55 PM CDT

Story Updated: Mar 11, 2013 at 9:17 PM CDT

Weather–wise, Sunday and Monday were like night and day. Monday's temperatures give us hope that maybe some warmer weather in our forecast.

But the brutal winds and heavy snow from this weekend made driving conditions extremely hazardous.

This is Sunday's image of the weekend winter blast that hit portions of Nebraska. Fierce winds lead to white out conditions and quickly became a slippery nightmare.

"East of Grand Island there was a heavier band of snow that picked up and it just kept blowing and we had a lot of problems down that way," said Wesley Wahlgren, District Engineer.

Wesley Wahlgren is the District 4 Engineer for the Nebraska Department of Roads. Wahlgren covers 17 counties including Hall, Adams and Buffalo.

"We had problems around Giltner approximately mile post marker 321 on our east bound side. Visibility concerns that led to numerous accidents closed I–80 East from Grand Island to Lincoln and I–80 West from York to Lincoln. The Nebraska Department of Roads determines the closures. We can actually see how fast traffic is flowing by looking at these because it's live motion video," said Wahlgren.

This is the brain center of the Nebraska Department of Roads here in Grand Island, here at the District operations center is where they keep track of the storm and also the conditions of the road

From Grand Island to Lincoln I–80 west and east remained closed for at least seven hours.

"Our biggest problem is excessive speed. If we could get people to slow down it would be much safer for them and much safer for everybody else," said Wahlgren.

For most of the day traveling conditions remained at extreme caution due to ice patches. But as the sun looms over the Central Nebraska plains.

"I think everything is melting pretty fast now, it's like traffic is flowing pretty good in the York area," said Wahlgren.

According to the Nebraska Department of Roads website... the state is now listed at normal seasonal travel.

You can visit 511 dot Nebraska dot gov for updates.

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