RALEIGH, N.C. — Winter weather is blowing into the Triangle and beyond as road crews ready for potential storms.

North Carolina Department of Transportation maintenance engineer Doug McNeal said this is the first large-scale operation in over 1,000 days. 

The work has already begun as crews treated low-volume roads and Interstate 540 on Wednesday, with high-volume roads and more interstates to receive salt brine Thursday.

“We’re fully stocked. We are ready to go,” McNeal said.

He works for Division 5, an area of roughly 15,000 traffic lane miles including Wake County and as far north as the Virginia state line to cover with salt brine.

“With the cold temperatures, it really reduces our window of when and where we can apply brine,” he said.

Western Wake County maintenance engineer Holt Willis said it is important to treat roads when the temperature is above 25 degrees.

“It’s basically lowering the freezing rate on the roadway, so it's buying us a little time,” Willis said.

One of the transportation agency's two salt storage facilities in the Triangle is aptly called Brine Mountain, where salt brine can be manufactured at 320 gallons a minute.

At the close of every winter, McNeal said every salt facility is full to start strong for the next year.

“Everyone just needs to be patient, and we will get through this,” he said.

The Division 5 coverage area has about 14,000 tons of salt ready for situations like this. 

A scaled-back version of road brining continues Friday, when operations transition from salt brine applicators to plowers and spreaders closer and closer to the arrival of any winter storms.