CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Transportation is preparing to battle the snowstorm hitting the Charlotte area.
NCDOT says they plan to hold off on treating the roads until after the storm passes because the wet pavement would wash away their materials. Officials say plow truck are equipped to monitor pavement temperatures and will respond accordingly.
“All of our trucks have temperature gages on them, so we will be able to monitor the temperature of the pavement and be able to treat,” says Michael Mariano, NCDOT maintenance manager in Charlotte.
NCDOT says they did not treat any roads during most of the Thursday because rain would wash away the materials.
“Temperatures won’t be low enough for any snow accumulate on the roads,” says Mariano.
However, later in the night, NCDOT says they’ll have 20 plow trucks on the interstates in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, and Union counties. The main concern is black ice.
“We’ll be treating tonight once the storm stops and try to prevent any freezing tonight,” says Mariano
Meanwhile, Medic is preparing for a wide-variety of winter weather related injuries.
“Generally, when weather first starts coming in we have a drastic increase in traffic accidents,” says Don Shue, operations supervisor for Medic. “After that we start seeing falls from the ice.”
Medic says they have a dozen extra crews during the expected peak time of the storm and they’ll be equipped with deicer when responding to calls.
“We can use this (deicer) to put under the tires, but we can also use it if we are going into someone’s house and the sidewalk is extremely slick or the front porch is extremely slick,” says Shue.
NCDOT is urging drivers to stay off the roads if possible or to take a primary route. They also ask drivers to give the plow trucks plenty of space as they battle the winter storm.
Medic says they’ve responded to 47 crashes as of 5 p.m. on Thursday, which is more than the 46 crashes they responded to all of Wednesday.
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