Dallas will treat roads before they ice over this winter to avoid another DART shutdown
DALLAS - The city of Dallas says it will now take a proactive approach when it comes to preparing for snow and ice.
In the past, Dallas would treat streets after they iced over. But according to a new memo, the city will now treat streets with a brine mixture when a snow or ice event is in the forecast.
In February 2022, Dallas's reactive response to the winter storm became woefully inadequate.
Ice-covered roads forced Dallas Area Rapid Transit to make the unprecedented decision to shut down bus service for 48 hours.
DART suspends all services due to icy conditions
The city of Dallas says it sent all of its trucks out Thursday to treat major thoroughfares and the central business district. But it wasn’t enough to stop the roads from completely icing over by Friday morning. In response, DART made an unprecedented decision of suspending all of its bus services due to the weather.
"I did get many calls from companies that their employees could not get to work," said Councilman Tennell Atkins.
The next month, DART CEO Nadine Lee defended her decision to city council members.
"DART had 93 buses stuck. DART has never had this magnitude of buses stuck in three hours as a result of changing conditions," Lee said.
Now, the city admits Dallas needs to do more before ice and snow fall rather than working to treat roads after they ice over.
"What we are doing differently, city council approved purchase of brine earlier this year. We’ve never done that before. Given the ice events we’ve had before, we want to do something proactive versus reactive sanding," said Robert Perez, the assistant city manager.
The memo from Perez said the city’s new anti-icing mixture is a brine solution. The city will use it to treat bridges, overpasses, inclines, and intersections first.
Many question DART's decision to shut down rail service, reduce bus service Friday
Even though roads, for the most part, were clear Friday, thousands of people who rely on DART had a third day of commuting trouble.
DART bus routes and other areas critical to public safety such as hospitals and fire stations will be prioritized next.
Residential streets will not be treated unless first responders need emergency access.
The treatments won’t help DART’s rail service but will hopefully prevent a repeat of the 2022 bus service shutdown that left passengers stranded.