What the SDDOT wants you to know before you decide to travel

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - As we know, with extreme weather conditions comes treacherous driving conditions.

And that’s what the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) is anticipating with the upcoming snowstorm.

However, before you leave home, SDDOT suggests checking road conditions.

Depending on the conditions, a travel advisory warning could be issued. This warning means to not travel unless necessary. Roads could be icy, and there could be limited visibility.

No travel advised means that weather conditions are potentially life-threatening, and roads will be closed, except to first responders.

However, if you do end up in the middle of a winter storm you should pull into the nearest town and stay there until the weather and driving conditions improve.

If this is not possible and you are stranded in the middle of a highway, you should contact local law enforcement and inform them where you are.

The SDDOT suggest downloading their app for your phone, for up-to-date driving conditions, however, if you don’t have a smartphone the next option would be to listen to the radio.

Once road closures begin, the SDDOT then monitors the weather to determine when to reopen the highways.

“If you close the interstate for a day or two, supplies quickly run out in cities, and we understand that, and we try our best to open just as quickly as we can. We want to open them up so they’re safe, but it depends on what happened out there. So, if we have some accidents out there that caused some blockages, or there is some cleanup we have to do we want to get that accomplished before we open back up again. Our goal always is to open just as quick as we can,” said Michael Carlson, SDDOT Rapid City area engineer.

For links to the SDDOT cameras, you can click here.

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