They cleared the roads after a lot of expending a lot of political capital by invoking emergency powers, not to mention the time and money wasted. Can't you imagine a government wanting a "cleaner" solution, that prevents the event from happening in the first place and generating any negative headlines?

Also, calling a comment "dumb" is not a great contribution to the level of discussion on HN either. Maybe you could take your own advice and try to do better too.