NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — As the snow fell last night, it may have brought many back to last winter's weather of icy roads trapping people at home for days.
NDOT officials said they've done a lot of work since then, which includes adding more resources to handle another dangerous situation.
"We're in an a lot better place than we were last year. We audited all of our existing routes. We added three additional routes," said Assistant Director of Transportation Phillip Jones.
NDOT officials recently said, for this upcoming season, this is the best-equipped they've ever been to handle winter weather responses.
NDOT has added 19 new snowplows and throughout winter they'll add 18 more for a total eventually of 40. Crews now have 80 routes they'll follow to make sure more Nashvillians can get out of their driveways and neighborhoods safely.
All the brine storage tanks are loaded with salt brine and all salt bins are filled to capacity ready to go.
This year crews will tackle the primary routes and then a new secondary list before heading to requests. It's all in hopes of hitting more connected areas especially neighborhoods.
"This year we're even more prepared because the city has more plow going to more routes connecting to more neighborhoods," said Mayor Freddie O'Connell.
There are still so many families in East Tennessee hurting following the floods from Hurricane Helene in September. That made this year's running of the Santa Train extra special for many families in the northeast part of the state. This special Santa Express has been making an annual run in part of Appalachia for over 80 years.
-Lelan Statom
