Fresh snow in the Sierra Nevada causing closures, spin-outs
TRUCKEE – A fresh coating of snow is blanketing the Sierra Nevada on Monday, causing a traffic mess along high country roads.
Chain controls were in effect on Interstate 80 and Highway 50 during the morning but have since been released.
More snow on Monday kept traffic at a standstill for hours on I-80. This came after a busy weekend in the mountains, with fresh snow finally falling in the Sierra.
It was pouring rain on the drive up I-80 eastbound to reach Nyack.
"It was pretty good this weekend, but today, we can't get nobody to stop. They just keep going," one chain installer said.
He said the work has been slow in the rain because people think they won't need chains.
"That's what they are thinking because it's bare here, but if you get up the road a couple miles, you run into the snow," the chain installer said.
That is exactly what drivers like Veronica Bucher found on her ride down from Truckee.
"Really slushy. Not so much ice, but just slushy and the snow was coming down really hard," Bucher said.
She was removing her chains in Nyack on her way home to Oakland.
"I've seen a couple people kind of swerve a little bit here and there and then a few spinouts on the side of the road, but no collisions, thankfully," Bucher said.
A jack-knifed big rig and multiple spinouts had traffic at a halt for hours on I-80 and State Route 20.
Caltrans crews have been busy up and down I-80, but the work does not stop even when the wet weather slows.
"Whenever we get a break in the weather, crews are always out there looking for whatever they need to fix whether it's guardrails, potholes," said Caltrans District 3 spokesperson John O'Connell.
O'Connell said maintenance crews also use wet weather breaks to monitor trees and remove snow from freeways to create wider shoulders so that more people can enjoy the snow safely in the Sierra.
