ATLANTA — Georgia officials are preparing and coordinating brine operations and staffing plans to respond to the pending threat of wintry weather, icy conditions and snow accumulation on Friday.
As part of its winter weather response plan, the Georgia Department of Transportation treats roadways, bridges and overpasses before a winter storm arrives with brine, a mixture of salt and water used to prevent ice from bonding to the pavement.
GDOT’s brine operations will begin at 7 p.m. this evening in northwest Georgia, with brining beginning in metro Atlanta at midnight tonight. Brine operations will begin in earnest in northeast Georgia at 7 a.m. Thursday.
Crews will work 12-hour shifts and prioritize treating interstates, state routes, bridges and overpasses north of and including I-20. State routes and interstates south of I-20 are also slated to be treated today into Thursday and re-treated as needed.
An estimated 20,000 lane miles of highway will be treated in the affected areas.
GDOT can store 1.8 million gallons of brine and can produce up to 60,000 gallons per hour statewide. It can deploy up to 50 brine tankers statewide, allowing tankers and crews to travel to other locations based on expected conditions in those areas.
Additional Georgia DOT crews will be deployed from southeast Georgia beginning today to supplement existing manpower and equipment in the metro Atlanta area. Brine crews will arrive on Wednesday to join forces with metro Atlanta crews, and plow crews and additional equipment will arrive on Thursday.
GDOT Highway Emergency Response Operators will monitor roadways in metro Atlanta for potential freezing during their active patrol hours. The department also uses a Roadway Weather Information System with sensors in 57 locations across the state, improving its ability to predict weather conditions on roads and changes in temperature, precipitation and wind conditions.
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