ARKANSAS, USA — Hours ahead of the winter storm county road crews are making sure they are prepared.
"We're ready, all the time," said Washington County Assistant Road Superintendent Randy Peoples. "We're getting all of our plow trucks ready and our chip trucks also. We're predicting several inches of snow."
"Making sure that we have everything," said Crawford Co. Judge and former. Road Superintendent Chris Keith. "All the equipment up and ready."
Crews in Benton, Crawford, and Washington Counties say their main focus ahead of the storm will be interstates and bridges. They say pretreating the roads right now would be a waste of time as the rain is supposed to move in before the snow.
"Because that material is going to wash off," said Benton County Director of Communications Melody Kwok. "So, right now it's just a bit of a wait-and-see."
Kwok says the county has three separate buildings to dispatch crews to clear the roads as soon as possible.
"We'll just keep hitting them as much as we possibly can until they're clear," Kwok said.
The county plans to use its plows and then treat the roads with sand and salt. Kwok says it's all hands on deck. The same goes for Crawford County.
"We'll have about 37 people working the roads," Keith said.
Keith says his crews will be out monitoring conditions starting at around 6 a.m. Possibly pre-treating some areas. The county says it has plenty of salt and sand mix.
In Washington County crews will also be working around the clock.
"We will be working 24 hours a day until the event is over with," Peoples said.
He says crews will work with the cities to make sure their roads are clear.
No matter where you live crews are asking people to stay home if they can. Saying this will help out first responders.
"That way they're not in the way of an emergency vehicle," said Peoples.
Crews say this storm can impact the roads until about Wednesday afternoon.
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