How is South MS preparing roads for possibility of snow? What to know before arctic blast
Trucks carrying tanks of salt brine spray will roll Monday over bridges and hills across Interstate 10 to protect pavement before the worst arctic cold invades the region.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation is preparing its snowplows, just in case. It also is ready with sand and slag — a rock mixture — that it can drop on roads for traction over slippery ice.
“All of our maintenance officers are stockpiled,” said David Kenney, a public information officer for the agency. “They’re ready to go.”
The forecast next week is still uncertain, but the National Weather Service said Friday the chance of snow was increasing. The worst cold so far this winter could plunge overnight lows into the 20s.
MDOT does not expect to close I-10, Kenney said, because the chance of freezing rain that would create thick ice was becoming less likely.
A Biloxi police unit monitors traffic on I-110 in Biloxi on Tuesday Jan. 28, 2014, after a winter storm left ice covering most roads in South Mississippi.
But local and state crews are busy. Leroy Lee, the roads manager in Hancock County, said his team has enough salt to treat all the county’s bridges twice. Valerie DeMatties, a public information officer in Harrison County, said crews are ready with salt and tractors. Joe O’Neal, manager of the Jackson County roads department, said the county has between 600 and 800 pounds of salt that it will not use unless ice is imminent.
“You’ve got to time it just right,” Jackson County Emergency Manager Earl Etheridge said. “Too late, you haven’t done any good. Too soon, it just washes away.”
Salting the pavement lowers the freezing temperature and makes it harder for ice to form. The agencies prioritize bridges because they ice faster than roads. Salt treatments may also target hills and curves where ice can accumulate. Etheridge said the county also focuses on protecting roads that lead to hospitals.
If the forecast holds, Lee said Hancock County will keep its bridges salted next week for as long as it can. He said the county has closed a few bridges before in freezes, but it is rare. “There’s no way to tell right off hand what bridges are going to ice before others,” he said. “It all depends on where that weather comes in.”
Motorists make their way along I-110 in Biloxi on Wednesday Jan. 29, 2014, after a winter storm left ice on most South Mississippi roads.
MDOT and local crews will stay on the roads through the freeze. MDOT also has a traffic monitoring center with camera feeds from across the state that Kenney said will be staffed 24 hours a day.
Kenney asked drivers to give trucks space as they spray, or consider not driving at all if the roads get too slick.
Hancock County Emergency Manager Brian “Hooty” Adam said crews ride the bridges “religiously” during freezes, on the lookout for ice. If the worst weather predictions come true, he said drivers should reconsider going out.
“If they’re telling you the bridges and everything is iced over, stay in,” he said. “It’s not worth getting in a wreck.”
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