Bartholomew to consider easing travel restrictions this morning

Bartholomew County remains under a red travel warning this morning, restricting roads to emergency vehicles.

County officials yesterday afternoon reviewed current road conditions and opted to keep the highest level of travel restrictions in place. They will be re-evaluating conditions at a meeting at 8 a.m. this morning.

Bartholomew County Emergency Management Department is updating the public on how the snow removal process and priorities work in these extreme weather events. Officials say that the county prioritizes primary routes and critical locations first. That includes 25th Street, Central Avenue, Tenth Street, County Road 450 South, Southern Crossing, and other high-traffic corridors. They also clear areas around the hospital, fire stations, law enforcement facilities, and other critical public safety locations.

Only after those routes and locations are clear, will crews move on to secondary roads and into residential neighborhoods.

They say that the large amount of snow and deep drifts slows progress and the extreme cold temperatures reduce the effectiveness of treatments including salt, brine and sand.

County officials said recently that once temperatures drop to near 0 or below, salt no longer works to melt the ice. They say that at that point, plows are just scraping the top layer of ice on the roadway.

Decatur and Jennings counties also remain under red travel warnings. Jackson, Johnson and Shelby counties have reduced restrictions to the orange watch status.