Closing roads due to ice/snow. (Houston, San Antonio: home, live, eat)

[bentstrider]

I frequently pick up at a dairy in Perryton and bring the load back to our yard in Clovis.
I've heard they close roads if a storm gets bad enough to snarl traffic in NM.

But how exactly does TX do it?
I've driven about 15-25 mph on the TX-70 between Pampa and Perryton when there were no plows or de-icers running, yet there were no state patrol barricades or anything put up.

Is it more of a "run at your own risk" sort of thing?

With that garbage expected to come down this weekend, I'm heavily contemplating just telling dispatch that I'm staying home on Sat/Sun and then heading back out on Monday when it's supposed to clear up.
I've dealt with the storms in this particular area for the past, three years I've lived here and managed to survive them by the seat of the pants.

[Bo]

Here in San Antonio, they use barricades and sometimes station an LEO at the barricade to enforce road closures for ice. (We rarely get snow.) It's not an advisory closure... it's a full-blown "stay off of the road or get ticketed" closure.

[High_Plains_Retired]

They will close roads in NM and in TX (at least on the High Plains) if conditions get bad enough. However, Texas seems to mostly just warn you to stay off the roads rather than shut them down. I suspect that this weekends things are going to get pretty bad around here.

Here's some a couple of websites I use to check road conditions (and closures) in both States especially whenever any of my family is traveling between Texas and New Mexico. My wife and grandkids are on their way over to west Texas tonight from Albuquerque so hopefully they should be ahead of the incoming bad weather.

New Mexico Roads - http://nmroads.com

Texas Roads - DriveTexas

Sometimes I also check some of the webcams the State Highway Departments and various towns have going. You can find some of New Mexico's highway cameras at the nmroads.com. Some highway cams in Texas area at: Traffic Cameras

[bentstrider]

Hmm.
Well as usual, the company is saying if the roads are clear enough to go ahead and head out.
But since the thought of using my 10-11 hours of driving time to get all the way up Perryton and then spend the night up there is bad enough, I'd rather just risk whatever consequences come about and stay home in my own room.

It doesn't really snow all that much out in this area honestly.
But all it takes is one monumental fail, in one of the few snow-storms, to put an early end to this line of work.

Besides, if the roads are bad outside my front door, I ain't going nowhere at all.

[High_Plains_Retired]

Unless it was blowing across the road, snow never bothered me much when I drove a semi out here. It's the ice under the snow that will eat your lunch though. And whenever we get a moisture event out here on the High Plains during the winter, ice always seems to be a significant part of it.

Be careful.

[bentstrider]

Originally Posted by High_Plains_Retired

Unless it was blowing across the road, snow never bothered me much when I drove a semi out here. It's the ice under the snow that will eat your lunch though. And whenever we get a moisture event out here on the High Plains during the winter, ice always seems to be a significant part of it.

Be careful.

I guess the job is just finally starting to give me the jitters then, especially whenever winter hits around these parts.
So yeah, I'm just going to go into ignore mode and if I need to hunt around for work again, then that's that.

Ten years of doing this and I've never really felt 100% at it.

[High_Plains_Retired]

My family got in safely last night. My wife said they ran into a few sprinkles of snow at Moriarty but nothing significant. Of course, if there's any snow within 100 miles of Albuquerque, it will be falling at Moriarty or Clines Corner.

They've changed our former "winter storm watch" to a "blizzard watch". I just checked the antifreeze in the cars and tractors and parked them all in the barn. I think we are ready.

[bentstrider]

Originally Posted by High_Plains_Retired

My family got in safely last night. My wife said they ran into a few sprinkles of snow at Moriarty but nothing significant. Of course, if there's any snow within 100 miles of Albuquerque, it will be falling at Moriarty or Clines Corner.

They've changed our former "winter storm watch" to a "blizzard watch". I just checked the antifreeze in the cars and tractors and parked them all in the barn. I think we are ready.

We've got two trailers parked in front of the barn in Perryton.
Figure that'll be enough to keep the dairy tanks from spilling over before any of us are able to get back there in any particular shape.
That and the next load isn't due to come off until Saturday night/early Sunday AM when the worst of the garbage starts dropping from the sky.

I already told dispatch that I'll be sitting out the storm at the flat and heading back out on Monday when the worst of it is over.
And if my front door is covered and the streets are impassable, then it's sealed!!

[bentstrider]

Well, looks like they did end up closing the US60 between Texico and Hereford.
First time I've seen that done.

[shoe01]

Just saw a post on Raiderpower.com from someone who drove from Lubbock to Houston in 9.5 hours today, which is encouraging as far as getting back to normal is concerned. He/she went on 84 to I-20, over to I-45. Edit: might need a 4-wheel drive to get to the loop or freeways.

Don't know about the Clovis area, which I think was even harder-hit than Lubbock, if I'm not mistaken.