NCDOT pleased with roads after storm but warns of refreezing overnight: 'Very good operation'

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Less than 24 hours after the first snowfall of the latest winter storm, the NCDOT addressed members of the media following cumulative snowfall totals across the region.

"I actually was kind of amazed," said NCDOT maintenance engineer Doug McNeal. "I didn't think we'd be this far along. I was very concerned about the temperatures that we had and the amount of snow that we had. But it's been a very good operation. We had a good day."

McNeal said he and his crews put down almost 240,000 gallons of brine in advance of the storm and as of Wednesday evening still were using an undisclosed amount of salt.

"It was a pretty robust effort through the night to try to keep it in a good position for us to come in this morning when temperatures come up and start clipping it off," he said.

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McNeal's division covers Wake, Durham, Person, Franklin, Granville, Vance, and Warren counties.

"We're very fortunate that temperatures didn't come up much too close to freezing. But we had good sunny weather, which certainly helps things along as well," said McNeal. "So we were able to get through most of the primary routes and the interstates today."

According to McNeal, there will be refreezing overnight heading into Thursday and he's grateful crews covered close to 70% of their area.

His region is covered by 14,800 lane-miles.

"It's a lot of territory to cover," added McNeal.

However, the infrequency of snow in the region also can prove to be a challenge with the agency's response.

"It's been 1,000 days since we had a lot of practice at this. There's a lot of learning," McNeal said. "There's a lot of lessons to be learned. So we're going to certainly go back and have some further conversations and be a little better next time."

According to the division head, those conversations include, "Coordination and getting plows to follow in the right sequence. It's in this area where we're sometimes going across five lanes of traffic or five lanes wide of traffic and having a good pattern there to get the snow progression off to the shoulder. I think we could do some improvement there. It's an unusual scenario and we're always willing to get better."

Additional areas of concern are shaded areas and other spots that do not get much sun that remained frozen Wednesday or will refreeze overnight.