• Beware of black ice (especially on bridges and overpasses) and watch for fallen trees or power lines.
• Avoid driving unless absolutely necessary or postpone until daylight when road conditions, such as black ice, may be visible.
• Do not pass a GDOT dump truck spreading salt/gravel; gravel may kick up and could break car windows. Follow at least 100 feet behind these vehicles.
• Be aware of GDOT work crews who clear snow and ice from interstates and state routes.
• SLOW DOWN to at least half of the normal speed limit and drive in low gear.
• Treat a non-working traffic signal as a four-way stop.

• When wet roads freeze, the threat of black ice is possible. Black ice is a thin, often invisible sheet of ice that forms on the roadway, especially on bridges and overpasses and low lying areas. It can form at any time when temperatures drop below freezing and there is any form of moisture, from sprinklers, run-off or precipitation on the roadway.
• GDOT Highway Emergency Response Operators (HEROs) will monitor roadways in metro Atlanta for potential freezing. HEROs will notify the 511 dispatchers and routine maintenance crews will address these issues.
• Will use the Roadway Weather Information System to help identify potential timeframes for black ice to enhance monitoring of these roadways.
• Will monitor black ice areas that were problematic during prior winter weather events and address it as soon as it occurs.

Make Sure Your is Home Winter Ready

Prepare your home to keep out the cold with insulation, caulking, and weather stripping. Learn how to keep pipes from freezing. Install and test smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors with battery backups.

Keep Extra Supplies

Gather supplies in case you need to stay home for several days without power. Keep in mind each person’s specific needs, including medication. Have extra batteries for radios and flashlights.

Pay Attention to Weather Reports

Sign up for your community’s warning system. The Emergency Alert System (EAS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio also provide emergency alerts. Also, know your area’s risk for winter storms. Extreme winter weather can leave communities without utilities or other services for long periods of time.

Create a Vehicle Emergency Supply Kit

Keep jumper cables, sand, a flashlight, warm clothes, blankets, bottled water, and non-perishable snacks in the car. Keep the gas tank full. Learn the signs of, and basic treatments for, frostbite and hypothermia.

Achieve & Maintain “Passable” Road Conditions

• Make keeping roads safe for emergency vehicles a priority.
• Focus crews first on interstates; then state routes from the most heavily traveled, to the least traveled.
• Goal is to maintain all lanes passable unless storm severity dictates otherwise.

Focus on Trouble Spots

• Pretreat bridges and overpasses prior to snow and ice conditions and monitor consistently.

Key Stakeholder Coordination

• Share pertinent information with local governments and other state agencies
• Update the public on road conditions and road closures as needed

Teams with different expertise respond to a variety of incidents. GDOT identifies these teams as brine distribution, interstate, special response and traffic strike teams:

Brine

Brine units distribute on impacted highways. (Brine is a mixture of salt and water is used as a preventative treatment and is intended to limit the bonding of the ice to the pavement).

Interstate

Treat and remove snow from interstate roadways using 3-5 tandem dump trucks (trucks with snow plows and material spreaders attached). Up to 18 crews.

Special Response

Respond to “hot spots” outside of treatment areas where interstate teams will focus.

Traffic Strike

Consist of Georgia State Patrol; Motor Carrier Compliance Division; Georgia DOT Highway Emergency Response Operator; Department of Natural Resources; Georgia Forestry Commission and Georgia Department of Defense personnel.

Pretreatment Materials

• Brine to pretreat Metro Atlanta and north Georgia interstates to prevent ice from building up on roadways
• Thirteen tankers will dispense brine along metro Atlanta interstates up to 24 hours before winter weather hits
• Thirty-one, 5000-gallon brine tankers are available to apply brine treatment to the interstates and critical routes
• GDOT’s Forest Park facility houses an automated brine production units, which includes 220,000 gallons of storage
• Districts 1, 2, 3 and 6 have additional brine plants and units

Equipment

• Six multi-lane tow plows to clear two lanes in one pass. Multi- lane tow plows will be dispatched around the state when needed and remove snow and ice from interstates and multi-lane state routes
• Single and/or double-axle dump trucks with front-attached snowplows to push snow and ice from roadways
• Single and/or double-axle dump trucks with rear-attached hopper spreaders or tailgate spreaders to distribute salt/gravel mixture and brine for de-icing the roads
• Plows and spreaders for F-250 pick-ups which allow multi-use of equipment year around
• Tractor-type motor graders for moving snow.
  

The following equipment, materials and staff are ready statewide.

Statewide (approximately)

Road Weather Information System (RWIS): Roadway Sensors

• Road Weather Information System - roadway sensors in 57 locations across the state will improve ability to predict weather conditions on roads such as ice, temperature, precipitation and wind.
• Expanded network of RWIS capabilities will include Georgia airports; and real-time capability to view all surrounding states’ weather conditions (AL, TN, NC, SC,North FL & MS).

View Roadway Sensors  

511/Navigator

• Added additional cameras to NaviGAtor Intelligent Transportation System to assist with monitoring and deploying resources.
• Enhanced GIS equipment tracking to identify locations being treated.
• A web-based program to monitor incidents.
• Snow removal equipment operators equipped with communication devices to share real-time conditions with their Area and District Storm Operations Center.

Media Contacts