TxDOT crews pretreating North Texas highways ahead of arctic blast
NORTH TEXAS - TxDOT crews have begun pretreating North Texas highways ahead of the arctic blast that's headed this way.
The agency's Fort Worth District has been aggressive in their approach, applying brine to highways and interstates on Wednesday.
Crews continued that work on Thursday.
"Brine acts like an antifreeze," said Val Lopez with TxDOT's Fort Worth District. "So when that winter precipitation falls on it – at that point, it dilutes with that brine and lowers that freezing temperature, and really creates a slush, which is much better than any sort of bonding ice on the roadway."
The salt and water mixture can last about a week, so TxDOT wanted to be proactive and get ahead of the incoming winter weather.
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The Fort Worth District has to prepare almost 3,500 miles of main lanes in the Tarrant County area for the potential wintry mix. The focus right now is on bridges and overpasses.
"Those bridges and overpasses are simply exposed, they don't have any insulation, so those tend to ice up first, and those are the ones we focus in particular during pretreatment when we're actively engaging in winter weather storm management," Lopez said.
Pre-treating will wrap up tomorrow. Crews will then transition to 24/7 operations before the dangerous cold hits North Texas on Sunday.
"We will have crews working in 12 hour shifts around the clock until things start to get better," said Lopez.
TxDOT's Dallas District, which covers seven counties on the east side of the metroplex, plans to begin pretreating roads on Friday morning. They expect crews to finish laying that brine mixture on all the major roadways by Saturday.
Even with pretreated highways, it's still better for people to stay off the roads if they can.
"Now we'll do everything in our power to make the roadways as safe as possible, but we also ask motorists to do their part as well," Lopez said. "We realize this is happening during a holiday period, which hopefully means there will be less traffic on the highways."
TxDOT says it's well prepared and well stocked for a multi-day event, if it occurs.
