Officials warn residents to stay off roads in event of winter storm

Monday 20th January 2025 05:43 AM

CRISP COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) – Crews with the Georgia Department of Transportation spent all day Sunday pretreating state routes with a saltwater solution called brine. GDOT says they will be out pretreating the roads on Monday as long as temperatures stay above freezing.

“We have assistance from our sister district above us, the Macon/Columbus area. They are coming down and going to treat the interstate and probably State Route 300 and Crisp County and down in Turner County. Then we are picking up the other two counties all the way down to the Florida line,” said GDOT Communications Specialist, Nita Birmingham.

Once GDOT starts receiving reports of ice along the state routes, they will respond to those areas and begin treating the roads with a rock salt mixture.

Counties across the region, especially those close to I-75, are preparing for the worst. For the Crisp County Sheriff’s office, it’s an all hands on deck situation.

“We’ve already identified locations in our county with fire stations and have understandings with our fire chief that we can put our deputies in those locations around the county. That way, we don’t have to cross a vast area of ground to get to somebody if help is needed. It gives us an opportunity to be closer to a call,” said Crisp County Sheriff and EMA Director, Billy Hancock.

GDOT is only pretreating and treating state routes. Because of limited resources from wintery mix weather, smaller roads may be left untreated.

“We don’t have the equipment. We can do some sanding out of our local public works, but we don’t have the brine and the salt to get to the roadways. The people that are off state routes, they need to be very careful should they try and leave their homes to get to a state route,” continued Hancock.

The Georgia Department of Transportation offers a resource known as GA-511. This app provides its’ users with current road conditions and any major delays along Georgia state routes. Users can also call 511 to report problems along state highways.

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