Tulsa Crews Operating On 24-Hour Response To Treat Icy Roads

Road conditions improved throughout the day on Tuesday, but the City of Tulsa's street department is getting ready for more icy roads.

The city's salt and sand truck drivers have been out treating the city's 1,700 miles of streets to help make them safer for Tulsa drivers. 

Tulsa's street department crews are working in 24-hour shifts trying to stay ahead of the next round of icy conditions.

Terry Ball with the streets and storm water department said drivers brought the salt and sand trucks back Tuesday morning for maintenance and cleaning before they head back out around midnight. He said even though temperatures have stayed below freezing, he expects the road conditions Wednesday morning to be better than Monday. 

“We’ll have a protective layer on there, and we’ll actually around midnight we have four brine trucks and we’ll assign those and go ahead, especially those elevated surfaces that tend to be problematic when you have another wave come; we’ll be adding some more pretreatment to those bridges," said Ball.

Oklahoma Department of Transportation crews are also out spreading the salt and sand mixtures on Oklahoma highways. They said the salt helps break up the ice and sand provides traction for cars, but they're urging drivers to take things slow, especially on bridges and overpasses. 

“So, those are areas that we really try to go through and make sure there is a good layer of salt and sand on those. Otherwise, it’s still kind of the same rule of thumb that it’s only as safe as the driver behind the wheel. So, for drivers that are going too fast or not giving their full attention to the road ways that could quickly cause a problem area as well," said Kenna Mitchell with ODOT.

Mitchell said ODOT will continue to treat highways, bridges, and overpasses throughout the evening.