The volume of traffic that passes through the I-5 freeway could be dangerous as winter storms are expected to come in.
Oregon department of transportation spokesperson Gary Leaming said it’s important to chain up your tires, especially in the case of a conditional closure when you would be required to have chained tires on dangerously snowy roads.
Leaming said, “We get whiteout conditions that kind of thing that before we can put a chain requirement on or start metering vehicles that you may be sitting in traffic for just a short period of time and hopefully we can get people going again and very quickly.”
Staff at Ed’s Point S Tire & Auto in Medford inform their customers of what is best for the upcoming weather. They pointed out that you can identify a snow tire by an icon resembling a mountain with a snowflake in the middle.
Leaming said, drivers should expect to said people should be ready to see snow covered roads. “If they’re going over a Cascade mountian pass whether it’s Lake of the Wood or high cascades up near Diamond Lake, they’re going to be traveling on snow pack.”
ODOT will be making efforts to keep snow plowed in certain areas, but people aware of the conditions should drive accordingly.