Here’s when the roads will freeze over and which bridges have been salted

If you plan on traveling today, make sure to watch out for ice on the roads.

Forecaster Dave Loewenthal with the National Weather Service in Wilmington said ice could start accumulating on roads by 12:30 p.m. in the southern areas of Myrtle Beach, and northern Horry County could see ice between 1:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Loewenthal said precipitation will be rain and ice at first, which he expects will freeze on the roadways. He said by this evening the area will see mainly snow.

“As cold as it’s been its not going to take much to cause a mess,” said Forecaster Steven Pfaff. “The temperatures in many of our areas even right at the coast have been so cold it won’t take much.”

But the South Carolina Department of Transportation has been getting ready.

Assistant District Maintenance Engineer Lorena Pate said that S.C. DOT had pretreated all the bridges on all state-maintained main thoroughfares with a salt brine by 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“It’s in a mixture and when the water evaporates out, it leaves a residue behind on the asphalt,” said Pate. “It stays there until it starts snowing. We’re not worried about it blowing off the roadway.”

Pate said that crews would continue to salt problem areas as needed throughout Wednesday.

Bridges on main roads including but not limited to Highway 17, Highway 17 Business, Highway 501, Highway 501 Business, Highway 905 and Highway 544 have been salted.

Pate said the the entirety of Highway 22 and Highway 31 have been salted due to the type of asphalt used.

“They should be out continuing to pre-treat and once the storm gets here, we’ll go from spraying brine to straight salt,” Pate said.

This story was originally published January 3, 2018 at 11:40 AM with the headline "Here’s when the roads will freeze over and which bridges have been salted."