Road Crews Prepare As Icy Conditions Approach OKC

With the potential for a messy morning drive, Oklahoma City is monitoring road conditions and school districts are deciding whether to cancel classes.

One big concern is the impact on the school buses. Metro district officials are prepared to hit the roadways to check for icy conditions Friday morning. Rain soaked roads and falling temperatures could make for dangerous driving conditions throughout the night into the morning.

"Any of the elevated structures may be a little dicey first thing in the morning," said OKC Street Supt., Randy Moulder.

OKC work crews have already begun pretreating city bridges and overpasses, the first spots likely to form black ice.

"We're setting with about 7,100 tons of salt right now, and plenty of brine to pretreat the bridges with, so we're in pretty good shape," said Moulder.

"We have multiple sources relaying information to us about just basically every area of the city," said OKCPS spokesperson, Kathleen Kennedy.

Oklahoma City public school officials say there will be several "zone leaders" on the ground ready to report potentially dangerous roadway conditions. The Oklahoma City public school district has 46,000 students, and nearly 5,000 employees.

"They check them for ice and snow and whether or not buses can get through on the roads," said Kennedy.

"Our district transportation officials, as well as district administrators, will hit the road first thing in the morning, and they will canvass our district," said Edmond schools spokesperson, Susan Parks-Schlepp.  

Parks-Schlepp says transportation officials will be out as early as 3 a.m. checking for ice on the roads.

"We make every effort to make that decision between 5 and 5:15 a.m."

The best thing to do is give yourself plenty of extra travel time Friday morning. There are six Oklahoma City crews on stand-by for any issues that might come up overnight into the early morning.