COLLINSVILLE, Ill. – Overall road conditions on St. Louis area highways and interstates in Illinois improved greatly on Monday compared to Missouri.

Snowplow drivers with the Illinois Department of Transportation had nearly all lanes clear with pavement markings visible as of mid-afternoon.

Side streets remained snow/slush/ice covered, but Joe Hamm, an IDOT snowplow driver, got off his overnight shift, caught some rest, and then started digging his and his neighbors’ driveways with a mini-bulldozer in Collinsville.

“I still enjoy it,” he said. “I’ve done it since I was a little kid working for my dad in construction, then went to IDOT, so I just keep going, helping people.”

Progress is stark compared to Missouri. Page near I-170 in Overland was a mess Monday afternoon, with multiple stuck on the heavily snow-covered multi-lane highway. Beltline Road in Collinsville, similar in layout to Page, was nearly 100% clear by Monday afternoon. Illinois interstates were, too.

IDOT covers about 5,300 lane miles of highway in 11 counties in the St. Louis region, not as much as the Missouri side, but still, IDOT is ultra-aggressive in attacking winter conditions, with more than 150 snowplows on the road working around the clock.

The goal was to have all of those lane miles all or mostly clear and to draw down staffing before the brutal single-digit cold set in Monday night.

That’s essentially where things stood by mid-afternoon.

“This has been a very unique storm; don’t want to jinx anything, but it’s set up to where we shouldn’t lose our progress like we did last night,” IDOT District Engineer Joe Monroe said.

Monroe pointed out that a late surge in snowfall late Sunday-early to Monday morning wiped out progress that was made clearing the highways on Sunday morning and afternoon.

“We’re going to have to have crews out overnight,” he said. “Obviously, trying to set the bar to where we’re just responding to slick spots, but we’ll have a partial crew out.”

Hamm was one of those called into work for another overnight shift driving an IDOT snowplow, beginning Monday night.