Tulsa's Streets Maintenance Manager On Preparing For Winter Weather

City crews have been at work since Sunday night treating the roadways in Tulsa. Tim McCorkell is the Streets Maintenance Manager for the City of Tulsa. He joined us on the phone on Six In The Morning with more.

How many crews are out and what are they seeing?

"We probably are running about 55 trucks right now out on the roadways. And these crews have actually been in since about 6 p.m. yesterday evening. We changed shift at midnight. And so this shift will run until needed. There's still a few slick spots out there. But for the most part, a lot of the roads have been treated. They're passable. But you really need to drive with caution. Like we stated before, there's still some spotty areas out there. So you never know, when it's going to change from just wet to black ice. And really be cautious in the turn lanes. Some of those are still being addressed," McCorkell explained.

How do you treat the roads?

"We started with both. We put our brine trucks out and started hitting the elevated areas like bridges, hills and over passes. And then as soon as the moisture started going down, we're applying straight salt. We've done that through the night. And we're continuing to do that until we get our temperatures above freezing," McCorkell said.

What do you want drivers to know?

"The best thing to do is just stay back away from (crews). They need to stay 150 to 200 feet behind the trucks. Don't pass them. Give them the room to work. I mean passing a vehicle, anything could happen. A chunk of salt could come out. Or you know, if they hit a chunk of ice or something and come off the plows that are in the front. They could hit the front of that. So just give them the room to work and it'll be a lot safer travel on their way to work," McCorkell said.

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