Latest Road Conditions Update from Unicoi and Carter County Highway Departments

In UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Both the Unicoi County and Carter County Highway Departments are diligently working to remove snow and ice from roads following a wintry weekend that blanketed the area.

Crews across the Tri-Cities region remain hard at work as they address the aftermath of the recent snowstorm.

Terry Haynes, the Unicoi County Highway Superintendent, shared with News Channel 11 that their efforts have been quite successful.

“Given the circumstances we’ve faced, we’ve done well,” Haynes remarked.

He noted that while secondary roads are still not completely clear due to frozen snow, higher elevations are also dealing with icy conditions caused by melting snow.

“We’re out pushing, but with the low temperatures it’s just not going to melt,” Haynes said. “Until it gets a little sunshine, and it was amazing yesterday, how cold it was, and what salt we had on, and what didn’t have it melted off.”

“We got blessed being able to get it off what we did yesterday.”

Haynes said he is concerned about the rain and snow expected to come on Wednesday, as it could cause flooding issues.

“If it really warms up and it becomes good hard rain, we will definitely have some probably low land flooding or, you know, mountain streams, but hope we don’t,” Haynes said.

Carter County Highway Superintendent Shannon Burchett told News Channel 11 over the phone that secondary roads are still frozen over with snow and ice.

He said low temperatures have caused salt to become ineffective despite crews working all weekend to treat roads. With the frozen roads, crews are only able to work safely in the daylight.
Some salt trucks have even gotten stuck and have had to be pulled out by wreckers.

Burchett also said crews have pushed what snow and ice they can off the roads, but he describes it as scraping an ice cube. He said the ice will not come loose until sunlight stays on it for a while.

Burchett said rain and snow expected on Wednesday could also cause some issues on the roads.

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Latest Road Conditions Update from Unicoi and Carter County Highway Departments

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