The Georgia Department of Transportation is deploying a fleet of snowplows, tens of thousands of gallons of brine and hundreds of employees as it prepares for the first storm of winter.
The agency will begin applying 100,000 gallons of brine to metro Atlanta highways at 9 p.m. today and continue until all interstates and state highways are covered.
"We are locked and loaded and waiting until 9 p.m.," said GDOT spokeswoman Natalie Dale.
The agency hasn’t always been prepared. Three years ago Atlanta became a national laughingstock as two inches of snows brought the city to a standstill for days.
Dale said the state has learned some lessons since then. The brine program is one example.
In 2014, "we didn't have a brine program, period," she said. Now GDOT can store 450,000 gallons of brine and can produce 20,000 gallons an hour.
The brine lowers the temperature at which snow and ice stick to pavement, which delays any accumulation.
During a storm, Dale said GDOT now shifts employees from southern regions where it seldom snows. It has 1,939 employees on call for this weekend’s storm. It also has 54,030 tons of salt statewide, 65,460 tons of gravel and 385 pieces of snow removal equipment that can be deployed.
Crews began treating interstates in the northwest corner of the state this morning. They'll treat highways in northeast Georgia beginning Friday morning.
When the snow starts to fall, GDOT will shift to spreading salt and plowing highways. Dale said interstate highways are top priorities, followed by state highways – starting with the most heavily traveled routes. A list of those routes was not immediately available.
The National Weather Service says metro Atlanta could get two to four inches of snow. Dale welcomed the forecast of snow, instead of ice. She also noted it will mostly fall on a weekend, not during a weekday rush hour.
“We’ve got some great things working for us right now,” she said.
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