MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WKRN) — Four thousand gallons: that’s how much salt brine Mt. Juliet Public Works is producing per hour ahead of Friday’s predicted winter storm.
From pretreating roads to pumping out thousands of gallons of salt brine, Thursday was a busy day for the public works department.
“We’ll run all of our secondary and primary roads, we will probably go through 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of brine,” said Toby Toombs, Public Works Operation Manager.
Toombs told News 2 the machine makes about 4,000 gallons of brine an hour, which is made up of 23% salt and the rest water.
“What salt brine lets us do on a day like today where it’s nice out, it lets us get ahead of the storm a little bit,” he added.
However, Toombs said there is often a misconception that salt brine melts snow. According to him, the mixture serves a different purpose.
“It actually makes a membrane between the pavement and ice, so when we come back with the snowplows there is a little fine layer of non-melted stuff and helps us push it off the road,” Toombs said.
Crews in Mt. Juliet have reportedly been out pretreating roadways since Wednesday. Now, they will work 12-hour shifts over the next couple of days.
“Really their Super Bowl is this weekend,” said Justin Beasley, City of Mt. Juliet Communications Director. “These guys are bred a different way, they love this stuff.”
As the city prepares for Friday’s winter storm, residents are reminded to stay home if possible.
“If you are at home listening and living in Mt. Juliet, the best way you can help them is to really get out of their way and let them do their job and give them caution and don’t follow them closely,” Beasley said.
To get updates on the Mt. Juliet road conditions and emergency alerts, text “MJ” to 67283 to get connected.
