Update: Lynchburg crews to continue plowing neighborhood streets today

Updated 7:50 a.m.

Lynchburg Public Works crews will continue plowing residential streets today after working throughout the night, the city said this morning.

Crews have also been working on "trouble spots" on primary and secondary roads.

"Please remember that residents are responsible for cleaning their sidewalks," the city said in a morning news release. "Please do not throw snow back into the street. Thank you for your patience throughout this snow event."

Greater Lynchburg Transit Co. bus lines will be running today, "but expect some delays," the city said.

Workers will collect trash for city residents with regular Monday trash collection, but again, they might arrive later than usual because of the snow, the city said.

Earlier:

Black ice is likely to pose a hazard to the region today — even on some roads that look clear.

Virginia Department of Transportation Public Affairs spokeswoman Paula Jones said sunshine on Sunday helped area snow plows push ahead, but also warned that this morning might be more dangerous for travel.

“Mother nature is doing her part, but temperatures are going to drop tonight so it is going to be pretty icy in the morning, I suspect,” Jones said Sunday. “We are now into the thaw, freeze cycle that takes place typically after these storms.”

Sunday afternoon, Jones said that major roads like U.S. 29, U.S. 460, and U.S. 501 still had some spotty snow on them, and that melt from hillsides could also run onto those roads overnight and refreeze.

The latest unofficial totals from the Blacksburg National Weather Service show the storm, which began late Friday, dumped close to a foot of snow on Lynchburg, with more than 15 inches in Madison Heights and 14.3 in Forest.

Public school divisions and private schools across the region have canceled school for today.

A recorded message at Lynchburg’s Greyhound bus station also said that all schedules are canceled until further notice.

By Sunday morning, major thoroughfares, including the Lynchburg Expressway, Timberlake Road and Boonsboro Road had been plowed and even showed a few spots of bare pavement.

However, the roads were still slick and icy and few vehicles were out.

Other streets, including Link Road, Old Forest Road, Forest Brook Road, Cranehill Drive, Graves Mill Road and Robin Drive, for example, had also been plowed.

Lynchburg Public Works Director Dave Owen said Sunday that the city had completed plowing primary and secondary roads and was working on residential streets, but that trucks would have to go back to the primaries and secondaries to lay down either salt or slag in advance of icy conditions to come.

He believed that city plows would be able to clear all of the city’s residential streets by late today.

Thus far, he said, area snowplow workers are having an easier time clearing the snow than after December’s storm.

He cited two reasons:

First, the snow is drier this time and not as difficult for plows to push.

Second, more people stayed off the streets early on, so the snow wasn’t as packed down.

“Hopefully there will be less problems on the residential streets for the citizens,” Owen said.

Beeline Towing Company owner Kevin Jones also noticed that fewer people seemed to have ventured out during this weekend’s storm than during the storm in December.

Last time, he reported towing more than 200 vehicles during the weekend. This weekend, he said, business has been slower even than a typical weekend.

“You got to remember last time was right before Christmas and people felt they had to go,” Jones said. “This time people just stayed home.”

Across the region, dispatchers, state police and transportation officials also reported a fairly quiet Sunday and weekend, without the same levels of accidents and abandoned cars piling up as occurred during the December storm.

Ron Ware, shift manager for the Salvation Army’s Center of Hope in Lynchburg, said that the center hasn’t been swamped, but that those who come in for lunch have been hanging out longer, taking advantage of a place to stay warm.

Ware said Sunday that there are still vacancies for beds overnight and that the shelter will offer a blanket and a place to curl up even if those vacancies fill.