Spokesman Mohamed Arafa tells Georgia News Network more than 360 employees are being put on call and they've got 110 snow plows and 94 spreaders ready, too.
"We have already replenished our supplies of fine stone and salt - the mixture we use to de-ice our roads," Arafa said.
Some snow and sleet accumulations are forecast for 19 counties from Friday night through Saturday morning but late Thursday afternoon the National Weather Service revised downward the amounts it is expecting. (See separate posting.)
Arafa said DOT will clear the roads based on a priority list "from the most heavily-traveled to the least traveled."
That means Interstates will be cleared first so emergency vehicles can travel safely. It's possible, Arafa said, that some rural roads in higher elevations will just be closed.
HALL GETTING READY
Hall County Public Works Director Ken Reardon says road crews are staging in three areas, preparing for the possibility of another bout with snow and sleet this weekend.
Reardon said he wants quicker response to problem areas if they occur, a lesson the county learned from the ice and snow storm that struck three weeks ago.
"We need to scatter our troops out a little more around the county," Reardon said. "We want to hit the northern part quicker and the southern part."
Reardon said he's ordered more salt to clear the roads, and when finances permit, he wants more spreaders for the county's dump trucks.
"We've got enough dump trucks," Reardon added. "The thing we want to do in the future when we get some capital dollars is to have some more spreaders to attach to those dump trucks where it will spread the salt and gravel better around the roads."
Undated file photo
http://accesswdun.com/article/2010/1/226591