Roads Still Tricky, Traffic Signal at Hwy. 365 and Hwy. 106 Malfunctioning

Roads remain treacherous as a winter storm moves out.

Stephens County E-911 reports this morning that roads throughout the county are once again snow covered after more snow fell overnight.

Also, under that snow is ice and slush making travel difficult.

Officials are urging people to stay off the roads unless it is an emergency both in StephensCounty and throughout the region.

Georgia Department of Transportation Spokesperson Teri Pope said travel is not advised this morning.

“It is still dangerous on our state routes and interstates, especially the two-lane routes, so we need your patience,” said Pope.  “We need you to stay off the roadways until at least later today.”

Pope said that the DOT is dealing with a malfunctioning traffic signal at the intersection of State Highway 365 and State Highway 106.

“It is flashing yellow on 365 and red on 106,” said Pope.  “Until the traffic signal operates normally again, if you are on the roads for emergency travel, do what the traffic signal tells you, going cautiously on yellow and stopping and yielding until it is safe for you to cross if it flashing red.”

She said there is no timeline for repairing that signal at this time, as it depends on what is wrong and the road conditions for accessing the signal.

As the morning moves along, Pope said the DOT focuses on interstates first and then the major four-lane state routes.

She said the DOT is not spending a lot of time at this point on two-lane state routes as those are the DOT’s lowest priority.

Pope did say that the Department hopes things will get better as the day moves on.

“We are hoping that today as temperatures rise, the sun comes out, and we get a little bit of wind, that we will get help in drying the roads and clearing those rural state routes up the old-fashioned way, with the weather,” said Pope.  “We are cautiously optimistic today, but we will continue to work until all of our roads are safe.”

Again, motorists can call 511 in Georgia for real-time traffic information on interstates and major state routes.