No more ‘closed’ roads in county [The Cullman Times, Ala.]

Dec. 29--CULLMAN -- Cullman County has tweaked its relationship with the state highway department to streamline its road maintenance operations during periods when hazards and other threats to safe driving create impassable or treacherous conditions on county roads.

In keeping with a standing policy already used by the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT), the county road department will no longer classify any county road as "closed" when winter weather, storms or other situations that create travel hazards impede motorists.

"We have to barricade a road if we close one, and we can't close every road that's icy or hazardous -- we just don't have that many barricades or enough resources to do that in the event of a widespread weather situation," said associate county commissioner Stanley Yarbrough. "This just makes it so we can classify a road as impassable or something appropriate to the conditions, and that way we can notify motorists and then they should use their judgment and only drive on roads at their own risk."

Commission chairman James Graves added that the "at your own risk" caveat isn't something drivers should take lightly, especially if they expect their insurers to cover any mishaps when road advisories have been posted.

"We will post this kind of information in the media, on radio and to television stations, and we will also update the road department's new website (click here to see website) when we have roads where travel is inadvisable in bad weather, and if you still go at it on your own, insurance companies won't cover that," said Graves.

director Phyllis Little said the change is simply intended to bring Cullman County's road closure policy in line with the one ALDOT already follows.

"The terminology is being modified slightly to agree more with ALDOT's terminology," said Little. "We will not have a road that's "closed" -- you may instead see advisories with definitions that say a road is "extremely hazardous," with that definition meaning that accidents are beginning to happen on it; that kind of information. It's what ALDOT goes by, and we are just following that.

"We have three terms that they use to define what a road's status is, and each time there is the threat of icy weather, we will fax our road information out to the media and to our department heads and to our local municipalities. Dispatchers have already been using this terminology in the past when we've been in touch with them. It's just simplified terminology to match ALDOT, and to go by what the county is able to actually do in terms of road closures."

Check the county road department's website at www.cullmancoroaddept.com for updates on road conditions in the event of hazardous weather.

--Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 270.

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