Fort Worth (WBAP/KLIF News) – The Texas Department of Transportation has started stockpiling supplies for this winter. TxDot will use a combination of salt, sand, chemical deicer and brine in an attempt to keep roads clear in case of a storm.
“We use salt, sand, salt-based deicers or liquid deicers or a combination of all those things to keep our roadways as safe as we can,” says TxDot’s Val Lopez
TxDot started using brine last year. The liquid salt mixture can help treat a road ahead of time using less salt than simply dumping salt on a road after the storm has started.
New York sponsored a study that showed placing brine on a road before a storm required one quarter the amount of salt needed after a storm.
“Brine and salt are only some of the products we have,” Lopez says. “No one product is going to be a magic bullet to deice everything.”
TxDot has 140 trucks that can be configured to respond to different storms and 225 people who would respond during an ice storm.
“The freezing rain is a much different animal than snow,” Lopez says. “Ice is heavier, it’s denser. It’s hard to get off. You can’t just plow it off.”
Crews could also be brought in from areas unaffected by a storm if weather threatens highways in the Metroplex.
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