CAMPBELL COUNTY, TN. (WLAF) – With a forecasted winter storm looming, crews across the county are preparing to clear roads and keep the power on.

“We will be going wide open once it hits,” said Campbell County Road Superintendent Ron Dilbeck.

The county has 867 roads that comprise 700 miles it will be taking care of. Using 16 plows, county crews will clear the roads putting down a salt and gravel mixture where needed, Dilbeck said.

“Our main goal is to plow it (the snow) and get it off the roads,” he said.

When the snow hits, county road crews will start clearing the main roads with snowplows attached to dump trucks then move to secondary roads using pick-up trucks with plows, according to Dilbeck.

City of LaFollette road crews are also preparing for the snow.

Yesterday, they were putting new cutting edges on the plows.

“We are getting ready and waiting,” said LaFollette Public Works Director Casey Boshears.

With a staff of 16 employees, five plow trucks, a grader and a backhoe, city crews will be tending to 70 miles of road. The city has around 400 tons of salt it plans to use as needed. Boshears said.

Neither the county nor city will be pretreating roads, leaving that job to state highway crews.

TDOT crews have been pre-treating East Tennessee’s interstates and state routes with salt brine, a salt/water mixture used before a winter storm. Salt brine is used to melt snow when temperatures are around freezing. Crews apply salt once snow collects on roadways.

TDOT ice and snow removal teams focus first on clearing interstates and heavily traveled state routes specifically targeting areas vulnerable to freezing, such as hills, curves, ramps, bridges, and interchanges. During prolonged weather events, crews may have to clear roadways repeatedly.

The LaFollette Utilities Board is also making its plans for winter weather. Electric and tree trimming crews are both on standby, said LUB General Manager Regina Kennedy.

“We’ve prepared as much as we can, and we will work as quickly as we can when called upon,” said Kennedy.

In the event of a large outage, the phones can’t manage a heavy volume of incoming calls, she said. Dispatchers will be working so if someone doesn’t get through, they are encouraged to call back, Kennedy said. Outages can also be reported HERE.

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 1/10/2025-6AM)

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