Across North Texas, preparations are underway for possible winter weather when a storm system arrives Sunday.
Texas Department of Transportation crews from the Fort Worth and Dallas districts are pretreating bridges and roads ahead of a possible wintry mix of precipitation this weekend.
Texas Sky Ranger caught up with trucks putting down a layer of brine Thursday afternoon.
The Dallas Texas Department of Transportation said it is treating main lanes, bridges and overpasses for Tier 1 and Tier 2 roads. The Dallas District is made up of the following seven North Texas counties: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Kaufman, Navarro and Rockwall.
The brine is a salt and water solution that helps stop ice from bonding to the roadway. The hope is that the brine will lessen the glazing of roads which makes driving hazardous.
Outside the TxDOT facility in Cedar Hill, trucks were ready to hit the roads.
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“We have over 400 crew members on rotating shifts to ensure the work is done,” said Patrick Clarke, TxDOT Public Information Officer.
Both NTTA and TxDOT crews have been working around the clock since Thursday, pre-treating main roadways, bridges, and overpasses.
“We’re not just treating roads in Dallas County, we’re treating roads throughout Dallas districts,” said Clarke.
Both agencies said they’ll have hundreds of crews on rotating shifts, and are ready to call them in early, ahead of Sunday, if conditions worsen.
“Native Texans know the weather can change by the minute. So we have crews around the clock 24/7 monitoring the weather reports," said Clarke.
The layer of brine, on the roads will help, but drivers should also adjust their speed to road conditions.
“Drive safely. That’s the most important part of this. We expect you to not just go as fast as you can, because we have that mixture. It’s to help you. But we also need you to drive safely as well,” said Clarke.
The North Texas Tollway Authority echoed that advice Friday.
“We all are responsible for transportation across North Texas, we all take that responsibility to heart and we all want to see safe travel, no matter who gets out on whose roadway. We’re all together working on this,” said Michael Rey, NTTA Media Relations Manager.
The Fort Worth District tweeted that crews would be pretreating bridges and roads. The Fort Worth district covers nine counties: Erath, Hood, Jack, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise
If you come up behind a brine truck you're asked to stay back and give the crews room to do their work.
You can find the latest road conditions visit DriveTeas.org, or call 1-800-452-9292
