A mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain fell over the Washington region Wednesday, coating the District’s roads and mucking up an early test for Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration.
Commuters driving into the city from Maryland and Virginia said the main roads on the other side of the District line were much more clear than those in the nation’s capitol.
“Driving was good until I crossed the bridge,” said Quinten Washington, of Woodbridge. “I think it comes down to having the right people in place to think things through.”
As the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning Tuesday, Fenty stood in front of piles of salt used to keep the city’s roads drivable and promised that the District would pass the first emergency test of his new administration.
On Wednesday, his administration was explaining why main thoroughfares such as K Street remained under snow Wednesday morning.
“They were definitely plowed,” said DDOT acting Director Emeka Moneme. “There just might have been the issue of timing.”
Moneme said the crews put salt and brine on the roads in anticipation of the worst-case scenario: an ice storm. Instead, the District received more snow than they’d expected.
The sleet, ice, snow and salt made a mix of muck that made it appear that the roads were not cleared, he said.
Most of downtown remained unplowed Wednesday afternoon and many vehicles that tried to parallel parked became stuck in the slippery ice.
Wesley Ford, of Southeast D.C., said he had a little trouble driving through the city Wednesday morning. Connecticut Avenue was plowed, but drivers seemed confused because the tributary streets were impassable.
“There was a lot of fish-tailing,” Ford said.
No major accidents were reported in the city Wednesday.
City officials were trying to keep the main roads cleared of the slushy muck Wednesday night so that the roads wouldn’t ice up overnight during an anticipated hard-freeze.
