Road crews out all night battling ice

Bobby Walker thumped the gears into reverse and slowly started backing his two-ton truck up a quarter-mile hill.

Snow and ice covered the street that stretched vertically up Missionary Ridge. He started working at midnight and had been spreading salt and sand all morning long.

“I drove forward the whole night,” said Mr. Walker, who works with Chattanooga’s Public Works department. “I guess I’ll have to back up the rest of the day.”

Around the region, public works and highway departments were busy laying sand and salt mixtures on roads, trying to clear them of ice. Jimmy Templeton, director of Chattanooga’s citywide services department, said his employees worked pulled double shifts Thursday night and Friday morning.

But all roads in Chattanooga should be clear by this morning, he said.

City officials said Friday they won’t have a cost estimate until early next week. But Tennessee Department of Transportation officials said they’ll spend $100,000 just in Hamilton County.

As the snow started to fall Thursday morning — and before ice began to form — Chattanooga’s trucks were out, spreading sand and salt along some of the most dangerous areas.

Mr. Templeton said that, overall, the streets held up fine and the trucks were heading to mainly secondary streets and hilly areas on Friday.

“The main thoroughfares did fairly well,” he said.

Public works officials said their priority was getting to those who called 311 and asked for assistance. Medical assistance calls were the very top priority, city officials said.

More than 180 calls had come into 311 by 3 p.m. Friday, records show.

One of those calls came from Cheryl Thompson, who lives on Pearl Street in East Chattanooga. Mr. Walker drove his truck up the steep hill and the path to her home, clearing it of ice.

She came outside in the 19-degree cold to thank him.

“I am on dialysis, kidney dialysis,” Ms. Thompson said. “I was trapped up here. That’s bad.”

Several people had tried to reach her that morning but couldn’t make it up the steep hill. Now she would be able to get her medical treatment, she said.

Mr. Walker drove in reverse for several streets, clearing the roads behind him. In reverse, the sand and salt comes out beforehand and melts the snow to create traction for the truck, he said.

Buddy Young, another Public Works driver, said he had been with the department for 32 years and he’s learned at least one thing over the years.

“On ice, it doesn’t matter who you are, it’ll put you in a ditch,” he said.