Complaining about the slick roads?

This year has been a hard one for civil engineers, highway departments and snowplow drivers.

Heavy snowfall takes a while to clear, but at least it offers something plows can clear. The roads are bad for a day or two and cars stay off them. Then the plows catch up; the roads are clear.

Light snowfall, particularly on successive days, is more difficult to clear. Traffic levels stay the same. The snow gets packed into ice. On top of that, light snowfall each day, followed by warm spells that melt the snow to water and in the evenings turns to ice, is just plain maddening. Anyone who still clears a sidewalk with a shovel can relate to how hard it becomes.

No matter how much snow is cleared, the base is ice. And packed-snow ice is easier to salt-and-sand away than melted-snow ice. Right now, the roads have both kinds of ice, along with occasional patches of black ice.

So give the highway crews a break this winter. They’ve done a good job with what Mother Nature has dealt them.

Stay safe on the roads and drive extra carefully.