NORTHWEST ARKANSAS (KFTA) — Crews in Benton and Washington counties are working to ensure drivers are safe on the roads when temperatures drop.
Benton county saw the brunt of the cold weather this morning, so it used 12 trucks to lay a salt mixture onto the roads.
In Fayetteville Wednesday morning, road crews were prepping their snow removal equipment, but wanted to wait until the rain stopped to pretreat the roads.
Both Fayetteville and Benton County will have crews coming in to monitor the roads overnight.
Fayetteville will have 18 workers come in and Benton county will have nine trucks.
“You have to stay ahead of it because people have to go to work, get out and get groceries, go to the doctors… so we concentrate on hills and around hospitals,” said Fayetteville Asst. Transportation Manager Joey Smith.
“The idea of pretreating is that you get it out on the road, keep something underneath it so if we do have a lot of snow that comes in, it works its way from the bottom as well as the top,” said Jay Frasier, the administrator of public services in Benton County.
While crews are working to protect the roads, they still emphasize the importance of not driving if you don’t have to.