Feb 3, 2011 By Josh Krysak 3 min read

Dallas-Fort Worth struggling to keep roads clear of ice, snow

ARLINGTON, Texas – While football fans from two cities accustomed to frigid temperatures and wicked winter weather converge on the Dallas-Fort Worth area this week for Super Bowl XLV, local residents, even those native to the Pittsburgh area, were left shivering as winter arrived with the teams.

Daniel Ciarochi, who was born and raised in Uniontown, but has lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 1995, said that the winter weather seemed the proper precursor to Super Bowl XLV as the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers prepare to battle for the Lombardi Trophy.

“If this happened in Uniontown, it wouldn’t be a big deal but here, everything shuts down,” Ciarochi said. “Everybody basically misses a day of work.”

Ice and snow was packed down on nearly all roads from Waco to Dallas snarled traffic for a second day Wednesday in northern Texas after an icy blast swept through the region Tuesday, forcing the closure of airports across the state and stranding area motorists.

And, unlike road crews in southwestern Pennsylvania that are equipped with hundreds of snow plows, and tons of salt and road treatments, road crews in Texas are equipped with sand.

“If this happened in a northern city trucks would be out and the roads would be manageable,” Ciarochi said. “But here they put no time or money into it. They really don’t treat the roads at all but it is also not a common occurrence. It happens maybe once every two years.”

Ciarochi said that in addition to the inability of road crews to treat the roads, drivers in Texas also struggle with the uncommon adverse driving conditions.

“The drivers don’t know how to handle it,” Ciarochi said. “They see the ice or snow and the first thing they do is hit the brakes. Big mistake.”

The frigid weather was part of a fearsome storm, which spread snow over nearly half the nation Wednesday, snarling transportation from Oklahoma to New England and burying parts of the Midwest under 2 feet of snow.

Rolling blackouts were implemented across Texas, including Dallas, due to high demand during the ice storm.

The outages didn’t affect Cowboys Stadium in suburban Arlington, but other Super Bowl facilities, such as team hotels, were not exempt.

The weather apparently will continue to be an issue headed into Sunday, as forecasters in Dallas are predicting continued cold temperatures until Friday afternoon with a 40 percent chance of snow on Friday.

But it’s supposed to be sunny and clear on the weekend, with temperatures perhaps reaching 60 on game day.