Public Works Department crews will pretreat bridges and overpasses with brine today due to possible light freezing rain tonight, mainly after midnight. A crew also will be on duty overnight to apply brine, salt and sand as needed.
The National Weather Service office in Blacksburg has issued a hazardous weather outlook for central and western Virginia as well as the central and western portions of North Carolina in its service territory.
For Danville and the surrounding area, the National Weather Service forecasts a small probability of light freezing rain tonight. If precipitation occurs, any icing would be light.
“There is about a 20 percent chance of precipitation and it will be light, so we have decided to pretreat the bridges and overpasses,” Public Works Director Rick Drazenovich said Friday. “We will have equipment operators on duty overnight to monitor road conditions and respond as needed.”
Motorists traveling overnight and early Saturday morning are advised to slow down and proceed with caution. Temperatures on Saturday are expected to be 20 degrees warmer than today. The forecast for Saturday is for a high temperature near 50 degrees and a low of 48 degrees.
Brine is a mixture of water and salt. When applied to the road surface, the water in the brine evaporates, leaving the salt behind on the road. The salt breaks the bond between the precipitation and the roadway, and it therefore helps prevent the precipitation from freezing onto roads and bridges.