Operating round-the-clock from the Transguide center in San Antonio, crews are tackling icy road threats with 800,000 gallons of brine.
SAN ANTONIO — The deep cold isn’t here yet, but there’s already an army of people on duty making sure roads will be as safe as possible all weekend.
It’s a force of about 300 people and they say that’s a lot of eyes working to keep everyone safe.
TxDOT has activated an emergency operations team at their Transguide command center in northwest San Antonio and they say they will be watching everything, everywhere as long as needed.
Jennifer Serold, with TxDOT said “So it’s pretty much an all hands on deck situation. We have all of our crews working 24 hours a day, so 12 hour shifts.”
Of the large darkened room dominated by a massive video wall, Serold said “We have a group at our Transguide building where we have all the cameras, and that’s like our central hub of information.”
“We get 24-hour reports from our crews on the road of what the road conditions are looking like and where we need to go to keep areas open and passable,” Serold said.
There are numerous agencies cooperating to save lives.
“We also work closely with law enforcement, so law enforcement is usually the entity that makes a decision to close the road. We work closely with them throughout this event and keep all those lines of communication open,” Serold said.
Serold says at least initially road crews will devote most of their efforts to the northern zones where they believe the risk is the greatest.
“They focus on elevated structures and elevated surfaces, so bridges, flyover ramps, anything that is off the ground is the first thing that they want to pre-treat because that’s the first thing that will freeze.”
The common goal is that they want everyone to be safe, especially the front line workers who will be braving the dangerous conditions without a break until the danger has passed.
“We ask that you give them extra room to do their job, to lay that brine solution,” Serold said.
Treating the roads with brine is a huge job.
Serold said “We have prepared almost 800,000 gallons of brine, so we’ll use that starting today, and as you know, as the inventory goes down, our crews start making more brine solution to last through the event”.
They say everyone can help with the effort, with Serold adding “Give yourself extra time, be more aware of the road conditions, drive slower when you’re on the roads and be sure to check www.drivetexas.org that has a lot of information, especially if you’re traveling across the state.”
The biggest help, Serold said, is avoiding travel if possible until the danger has passed.
“We’re just going to be pushing the message of everyone just stay home if you don’t need to be on the roads,” Serold said.