Tennessee highway crews spent most of Friday dumping an icing-preventative brine solution over Northeast Tennessee roads and interstates as they readied for what was expected to be the region’s first major snowstorm.
“This is usually when we start seeing our first bout with Mother Nature,” Tennessee Department of Transportation spokesman Travis Brickey said Friday.
“They’ll go home, get some rest, come back and get ready to start salting those roads,” he said of the road crews.
The state transportation agency is responsible for 1,367 lane-miles of highway in Carter, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi and Washington counties. And Friday’s deployment was the first time the highway crews used the brine solution, a mixture of salt and water, to pre-treat all state-maintained roads and interstates in the 24 Northeast Tennessee counties that make up TDOT’s First District.
Previously, the liquid de-icing solution – designed to prevent ice buildup on roadways – was used only in higher elevations. On Thanksgiving Day, the crews spread the solution on roads in the region’s higher elevations, and one other time right before the holiday in some mountainous parts of Carter County, Brickey said.
Also Friday, the state readied its salt trucks, because of winter weather advisory issued about 3 p.m. by the National Weather Service office in Morristown, Tenn. The advisory predicted that the region would see 1 to 3 inches of snow by 7 p.m. today.
The winter storm predictions are based on a low-pressure system making its way across the Carolina coast and an upper-level disturbance across the Tennessee Valley, the weather service said in the advisory.
The winter storm warning also sent Sullivan County’s Highway Department into action, even though its staff had Friday off because they work four 10-hour days each week.
“If it starts snowing, we’ll be out,” Highway Commissioner Allen Pope said Friday, adding that he made sure all of the county’s salt trucks were full and ready to hit the roads.
But, Pope said, he’s not too worried about the storm because Friday evening’s temperatures weren’t forecast to drop below 31 degrees. Because of that, Pope said, any snow that fell would be a wet snow and shouldn’t pose much of a problem.
“Most of that should push pretty good,” Pope said, adding that the county’s highway crews would probably still need to salt bridges and shady spots in case it did get cold.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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