Cobb DOT prepares for ice storm impacts

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Cobb County officials say they are prepared. The Department of Transportation has more than a dozen vehicles and 100 tons of salt.

Crews are even traveling from Florida and Alabama to help Georgia.

Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell says they trained for this months ago.

“We will have road maintenance staff ema police fire running out of this facility monitoring the conditions on the roadway,” said Drew Raessler, director of Cobb County Department of Transportation.

Cobb County DOT crews will work around the clock until the weather beaks and roads of fully cleared.

“We recently upgraded our brine unit where we were able to make 3,500 gallons an hour, now we can make about 10,000 gallons an hour,” said J.D. Lorens, deputy director of Cobb County Department of Transportation.

They will pre-treat roads as the temperatures begin to drop.

“This is an example of one of our spreader units. It holds 11 tons of salt mix that will be part of what we put on the ground as soon as it accumulates,” Lorens said.

Cobb DOT says it conducts inclement weather training like this well ahead of winter storms to prepare.

“All of our routes are now digitized so that we can see where all of our assets are,” Lorens said.

Cobb DOT is urging folks to stay off the road and give their crews the room they need to treat the roads to make sure first responders can get to calls for service.

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