Transportation crews prepare for the possibility of icy roads next week

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Transportation crews are preparing for the possibility of icy road conditions early next week.

“Monday afternoon, later afternoon, early evening is going to be kind of questionable for us right now,” said Causeway General Manager Carlton Dufrechou. ”We’re expecting about 12 to 18 hours of freezing temps on the bridge, it takes a while for the deck to actually cool down, its concrete will actually retain its heat, the big question is the amount of precipitation we are going to get, what I am hearing so far is no snow but there is the potential for wet moisture which certainly could turn to ice and that’s what we’re all watching and concerned about.”

The Louisiana DOTD says crews strategically mobilized salt pallets this week.

“We just want people to try to stay home if they can because you don’t know a bridge may be closed and you get up to it and then you got to go somewhere else,” said Michael Vinsanau with Louisiana DOTD.

For now, they’ll continue to closely monitor the forecast and they ask that you do the same.

“We’ve got all our stuff prepared, we have the anti-ice fluids all prepared on the north shore and loaded in the vehicles. At the moment, we would just hope that all of our commuters would try to get home early Monday evening,” said Dufrechou.

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