Kentucky Crews Prepare for Ice

From the hardest working man in Kentucky, Keith Todd at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, he reports District 2 Highway Crews plan to pre-treat area highways to prepare for a threat of freezing rain, sleet, and/or snow that is expected to sweep through the region on Thursday night into Friday morning.

Keity told WBKR, "This system has the potential to create some gnarly driving conditions, particularly on the Friday morning commute.   Motorists are urged to closely monitor the local weather forecast for updates as the winter weather system approaches.  Motorists should be alert for slow moving trucks during daylight hours today and Thursday as crews go about their work spraying brine to prepare roadways for this event".

Now, pre-treating involves spraying a brine solution on roadways that dries to leave a fine powder of salt.  That salt coating is then available to be activated as wet stuff starts to fall during the early hours of a snow and/or ice event.  In addition to improving safety by initially melting snow and ice as it falls, the salt powder also keeps snow from bonding to the driving surface making it easier for plows to push it off the roadway later in the event.

Temperatures today and Thursday are expected to be warm enough that crews should have time to pre-treat most routes.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has established snow/ice priority routes for each county.  Maps showing the snow removal priority routes are available here.

Timely traffic advisories for the 11 counties of KYTC Highway District 2 are available by going to their Facebook page.  You do not have to be a Facebook member to access it.