State officials urge people to stay off roads as blizzard moves in

Stay off the roads if you can and let crews do their work. That’s the message from state officials ahead of Monday’s storm that’s expected to bring blizzard conditions across Connecticut.

Gov. Ned Lamont has already declared a state of emergency and issued a highway ban on commercial vehicles.

“This is going to be a bad one, and worse than the one we thought was pretty bad just at the end of December,” Gov. Lamont said.

A warning from the governor as Connecticut prepares for an expected blizzard. The governor declaring a state of emergency and commercial vehicle highway ban ahead of the storm. The ban includes vehicles like tractor-trailers or RV’s but doesn’t include emergency vehicles or utilities vehicles. He says this is in coordination with other nearby states and urged people to stay off the road if they didn’t need to go anywhere.

“It’s just incredibly dangerous. Could get really slick with the ice,” he said.

With wind gusts expected to peak at 40 to 60 miles an hour across Connecticut and the risk of falling trees and power lines, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) says it’s best to delay any plans.

“Monday morning is not the time to try to go pick something up off Facebook Marketplace. Wait and pick it up later in the week,” said Josh Morgan, a spokesperson for CT DOT.

DOT says they have a total of around 900 plow drivers ready to go to clear out all the snow that’s expected, but are asking for patience, saying it will be different from the last major storm a few weeks ago.

“Last time it was light, fluffy, easy to move. This time it’s going to be wet, heavy, more difficult to move,” Morgan said.

The agency says they have plenty of salt and other material to be ready to plow to prioritize creating passable highways once the snow stops.

“So, really trying to clear those travel lanes, but then we have to go out and clear the medians, clear the shoulders, clear some of those snowbanks and piles,” Morgan said.

DOT is also asking people, if you must travel during this weather, slow down, make extra time, and do not crowd the plows, saying it could cause a crash, further delaying any snow cleanup.