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How Raleigh prepares for winter weather
Picture this: It’s 2014. Three and a half inches of snow falls midday, and roads are getting slick fast. Schools let out early, and as everyone rushes home, things get much worse. Vehicles slide off roads and break down; others are stranded. Raleigh’s “snowmageddon” painted a picture for the rest of the country of what goes down when it snows in the South: Locals enter a panicked frenzy, while our more snow-minded counterparts from up North watch, mystified.
On average, Raleigh receives just 6 inches of snow each winter (and even less in recent years), but the city stays prepped for the worst nonetheless—ready to brine streets ahead of potentially dangerous precipitation. The current plan stretches 874 lane miles, dispensing a salty solution that prevents frozen precipitation from bonding to pavement.
That preparation comes at a price. At roughly $0.77 per gallon—including labor, equipment and materials—salting the city clocks ~50K gallons of brine (about ~50 tons of salt), running ~$38,500 a pop.
Because every storm behaves differently, the city doesn’t rely on a standard forecast percentage when deciding whether to brine, Jason Holmes, division manager of the Right of Way Maintenance Division, tells RM.
“Extreme cold temps and wet, rainy conditions inhibit the effectiveness of brine,” he explains. “So if there is rain in the forecast leading up to a changeover to frozen precipitation, we would most likely choose not to expend resources due to the decrease in effectiveness.” The division also coordinates with the county and NCDOT throughout the decision-making process to keep efforts aligned across the region.
Roads with the highest traffic volumes get priority for brining and plowing, notes Holmes. It’s the price of keeping cars on the road when winter decides to bring her wrath—here and across the South.
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