How Lafayette, LA’s Government Prepares for Winter Weather | Weather/traffic

While children – and perhaps adults too – are praying for a snow day next week, others are busy preparing for the possibility of treacherous winter weather.

Employees across Lafayette Consolidated Government have been busy preparing for the possibility of winter weather.

It’s still too early to know if Acadiana will actually see snow accumulation. More likely is a wintry mix of precipitation that could lead to icy bridges.

Workers with the Department of Traffic, Roads and Bridges have been inspecting major roads and bridges for deficiencies that need to be fixed before the storm, according to LCG spokesman Jamie Boudreaux.

They also increased their supply of brine to treat major bridges before the storm to reduce ice accumulation. The brine, which LCG buys from Cargill Salt in Breaux Bridge and keeps on hand each winter, is applied to streets using a method similar to how farmers apply herbicides to their fields — using sprayers from a tank. Only instead of a tractor they are on a truck. Workers also have salt, purchased from home stores, on hand to de-ice roads and bridges after a storm.

The highest bridge priorities before and after a winter storm for city-parish government are often those Lafayette Police must temporarily close due to hazardous conditions. They include bridges on:

• Camellia Boulevard on the Vermilion River
• Pinhook Road at the Vermilion River
• Surrey Street at the Vermilion River
• Pinhook Road at the Vermilion River
• University Avenue at the Vermilion River
• Ambassador Caffery Parkway overpass near Cameron Street
• General Mouton Road at the Vermilion River
• The Louisiana Avenue Bridge near Shadow Bluff Drive
• The West Bayou Parkway Bridge near Rotary Point
• Kaliste Saloom Road at E. Broussard Road

Lafayette Utilities System workers have been busy trimming trees and performing other preventative maintenance projects ahead of the storm to reduce the risk of power outages caused by icy tree limbs, Boudreaux said.

LUS also has generators that employees start running before, during and after the storm to minimize downtime should there be power outages. LUS used to wait until the generators were needed to power them, but during a freeze event in 2010, one generator was unusable because a gas valve was frozen. Since then, LUS prepares for storms by periodically running generators ahead of and during major freeze events, Boudreaux said.

Across LCG, employees prepare for freezing temperatures the same way homeowners prepare their properties.

Golf course workers also turn on the sprinkler systems ahead of a hard freeze to freeze the soil, which keeps the root systems and pipes underground warmer, Boudreaux said.

“There’s just a lot that goes into this across all these departments,” Boudreaux said. “And there are a lot of moving pieces and a lot of individuals within each of those departments that monitor the weather and enact plans.”