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DOTD focused on bridges ahead of potential for ice

2 years 2 months 6 days ago Thursday, January 20 2022 Jan 20, 2022 January 20, 2022 8:39 PM January 20, 2022 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Crews with the Department of Transportation and Development canvassed the Huey P. Long Bridge Thursday afternoon to pre-treat potential areas of concern with isolated ice possible overnight.

"Mainly the Mississippi river crossings, we're spraying brine, saltwater," spokesman Rodney Mallett said. "We're not putting down salt. Once you put down salt, it can blow away."

That bridge, along U.S. 190, was one of a handful of locations crews were covering. DOTD considers it a priority route during winter weather events.

"This bridge right here is much easier to keep open than the I-10 Horace Wilkinson Bridge," Mallett said. "It's narrower. There's not as much space to keep the ice out of. It's shorter."

Equipment, large quantities of salt, and staff will be in position overnight to respond to any problems.

"We'll have scouts, people manning the staging areas across the region," Mallett said. "We have people at our salt house that are prepared to load our salt spreaders as needed."

I-110 is also on the radar of DOTD's Traffic Management Center. All lanes of I-110 will close indefinitely from I-10 to US 61 at midnight Thursday.

"We may close [I-110] just because it's not heavily traveled," Mallett said. "We're not going to put a lot of resources on it, because it's so long and so elevated, and you have all those alternate routes [like] Florida [Boulevard], Airline [Highway], Plank [Road], and Scenic [Highway]."

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