– As North Carolina braces for the year's first large winter storm, state transportation officials are urging people not to travel during the storm unless it's absolutely necessary.
“Travel could be treacherous across much of the state through the weekend,” said state Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins. “We encourage non-essential travel to be limited to allow crews time to safely clear roads.”
Much of North Carolina is forecast to receive some combination of snow, ice and freezing rain starting Friday and continuing into Saturday morning. The heaviest amounts of winter precipitation are forecast for the mountains and foothills and central North Carolina north of Interstate 85.
N.C. Department of Transportation staff are closely tracking the weather and getting prepared. In each county, NCDOT maintains an inventory of front-end loaders, dump trucks with brine applicators or salt spreaders, snowplows and motor graders for the most difficult roads.
Transportation crews statewide have readied their trucks and equipment, and started treating roads for any snow, ice and freezing rain the state could receive. Many county NCDOT crews are spreading a saltwater solution called brine on roads to prevent ice from forming on pavement.
Brine lowers the freezing temperature of water to about 18 degrees.
NCDOT, including its leadership staff and employees in all highway divisions, traffic safety, operations, the Division of Motor Vehicles, as well as the rail, aviation, public transportation, bicycle, pedestrian, and ferry divisions, are closely monitoring the storm and prepared to respond as necessary.
More than 1,100 NCDOT employees are pre-treating roads and getting ready for the storm. As of 9 a.m. Thursday, NCDOT crews statewide had placed more than 633,000 gallons of brine on roads statewide. NCDOT has nearly 2,000 trucks that can be equipped with plows and spreaders to remove snow and ice. The agency also has 238 motor graders, and NCDOT can store up to 9,577 tons of salt and sand and 1.9 million gallons of brine at its storage facilities across North Carolina.
The state agency is also staging some trucks and equipment along roads where ice, snow and water have been known to accumulate during previous winter weather, and NCDOT stands ready to deploy crews with chainsaws able to cut and remove downed trees from roads.
Once roads have been treated, NCDOT crews will be staged to respond once the precipitation begins. They will work around the clock in 12-hour shifts to plow and treat snow and ice until all state-maintained roads are cleared.
As early as the fall, NCDOT crews began preparing for winter weather by testing equipment, performing dry-runs and ensuring they have ample amounts of salt and sand.
For real-time travel information please visit
DriveNC.gov. Check out NCDOT’s website for more
information on winter travel tips.