NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — TDOT has been busy putting together their final preparations for Wednesday's snow event, which is expected to bring significant totals to parts of Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.
Workers in Region 3 —West Nashville— have to cover approximately 11,000 miles of roads. Crews finished brining roadways Tuesday morning and spent the latter half of the day salting the roads.
“We are prepared for it, and again, we had a good test run back in January,” said Erin Zeigler, TDOT’s Communication Officer for Region 3. “We feel good about it. Our priority is to clear the roads so that we don’t have that refreeze on the roads.”
TDOT's Region 3 has nearly 300 trucks and more than 67,000 tons of salt to keep roads clear when the snow starts to fall.
However, the latest round of snow isn't happening on Friday, like it did in January. Instead, the snow event takes place in the middle of the week, which means more people may be out on the roads.
“This is happening in the middle of the week. We’re still hoping that people stay home when they can, if they can, because we need space to clear the roads before it gets dangerously cold and that snow freezes,” explained Zeigler.
TDOT crews will be working extra hours Tuesday night, into Wednesday morning, treating major roadways as quick and often as they can.
“Our goal is to clear all interstates and state routes by about noon tomorrow,” added Zeigler.
According to Zeigler, Help Trucks will be deployed in more mass on Wednesday to aid rural areas.
“Those are those yellow trucks you’ll see on interstate and state routes. They usually only cover just the immediate Metro area, but we are extending our help routes like we did our last winter weather event,” said Zeigler.
The main message from TDOT, and one that will prevent you from needing a Help Truck: if you can, just stay off the roads on Wednesday morning.
