HOUSTON – As Houston braces for an incoming winter storm this weekend, transportation officials warn that standard road treatments may prove ineffective against expected icy conditions.
Road crews typically deploy brine, a mixture of water and salt, on highways and bridges as a preventive measure.
However, forecasted rain before freezing temperatures could render this treatment useless, leaving Houston’s roads particularly vulnerable to ice formation.
“We typically begin that pretreatment about 24 hours out. There’s not much effectiveness that takes place beyond 24 hours. The brine will wear off,” explained Randy Macchi, Houston Public Works Director.
Limited resources for winter weather
Unlike northern cities, Houston lacks the infrastructure and resources typically used to combat winter weather conditions.
The city has just fifteen sand-spreading trucks and seven brine applicator units available for its massive road network.
“The city of Houston we are responsible for more than sixteen thousand lane miles of roadway... that’s a distance from Houston to Tokyo and back,” said Macchi. “But the reality is that’s not a whole lot for city like ours.”
Perhaps most telling of Houston’s limited winter weather preparedness: “We don’t have any snow plows,” Macchi noted. “We do get that question typically when a winter storm comes up... the answer is zero.”
Different approaches across the region
While the city employs a combination of brine and sand treatments, Harris County Precinct 4 takes a different approach, utilizing chat rock, a finely ground gravel material, on approximately 140 bridges from Tomball to Katy to Hockley.
“As people drive on it, it’ll break up any ice that’s accumulated on those bridges,” explained Walter Hambrick, Director of Road & Bridge for Harris County Precinct 4.
The precinct maintains six trucks with two spreaders each for distribution.
Unlike brine or salt treatments, chat rock offers some environmental advantages.
“We will go collect it all, bring it back to our stockpiles, and reuse it,” Hambrick said. “We have the sustainability also — with brine, salt, you have the environmental concerns. We don’t have those concerns with chat rock.”
What do the experts up north say?
When consulted about Houston’s predicament, Pittsburgh’s winter weather experts provided a sobering assessment.
“Well, like you said, you can’t use brine when it’s raining because it’s just going to wash it away,” said John McClory, Acting Director of Pittsburgh Public Works.
McClory, who brings 38 years of winter weather management experience in Pittsburgh, explained that without proper salt treatments, which can work in temperatures as low as 15 degrees below zero, Houston faces limited options.
“I guess you guys are going to have to wait until it thaws, unless you can come up with some idea where to get some salt.”
Just don’t do it
If you don’t have to drive this weekend into Monday, simply don’t.
“We’re discouraging traffic. We want people to prepare today, tomorrow, and to Friday, so they’re not having to go out and use the roads,” Hambrick emphasized. “Our treatment is for that emergency travel, law enforcement, police, fire and EMS.”