MDOT Prepares for Icy Road Conditions

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI)–The Mississippi Department of Transportation is on standby if crews are needed to put salt on overpasses if cold temperatures cause ice to accumulate. Throughout the day,  MDOT crews were filling haulers and smaller trucks with coarse rock salt and equipping the larger trucks with snow plows. Engineers want to be sure that the equipment is ready if the trucks need to roll if the temperatures fall below freezing and precipitation hits the area. In the meantime, the district emergency operations center is staffed and workers are monitoring the weather.  Matt Dunn of MDOT District One is confident that his crews will be able to answer the call:

“We have sixteen counties in District One, which means we have sixteen crews plus I have several other crews that float those sixteen districts that will be giving them support when we get enough ice on the roadway.”

Dunn says crews will be called out when the temperatures dip below freezing and there is some sort of precipitation.  In the meantime, he encourages motorists to call 5 1 1 for updated information on road conditions.