Travel ban in southeastern Massachusetts lifted day after blizzard
A travel ban in southeastern Massachusetts was lifted at noon Tuesday, a day after a blizzard left some towns with more than three feet of snow.
Gov. Maura Healey issued the ban on "non-essential motor vehicle travel" in Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable and Dukes counties Monday afternoon during the storm.
"Residents are still advised to use caution and stay home if possible to allow for crews to continue their cleanup efforts. Those who need to travel should prepare for icy, snow-covered and slushy conditions on the roadways," Healey's office said in a statement Tuesday.
There are still local travel restrictions in New Bedford, Fall River, Brockton and other towns in southeastern Massachusetts.
The governor called for the travel ban to help support snow removal operations in southeastern Massachusetts.
Several vehicles were still stranded on Route 24 in Somerset Tuesday morning. Jonathan Gulliver, the Highway Administrator at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), said most of the stranded cars have been towed away. The owners are expected to call state police to get them back.
"We had we had some ramps, ramps that had five, six, seven cars even just completely blocking them, which means that those ramps did not get plowed when they should have," Gulliver told WBZ-TV Tuesday. "That created a lot of extra work for our crews to both remove those cars and get those opened up."
Some vehicles were exempt from the travel ban, including emergency workers, patients traveling to receive urgent care, and those supporting operations to provide critical services.
Healey declared a state of emergency on Sunday ahead of the storm and activated 200 members of the Massachusetts National Guard. An additional 150 members were activated Monday.
The state of emergency remains in effect for all counties except for Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin in western Massachusetts.
"We're right now transitioning from really focusing on those state highways to working with MEMA to provide some equipment to the cities and towns, many of which are also really snowed in right now, and helping to get a lot of those local roads cleared and especially get some of those emergency routes opened up," Gulliver said.
