ATLANTA — Transportation crews are on the road working to clear lingering trouble spots from this week's snow and ice.
The Georgia Department of Transportation is working on 13,000 miles of road it maintains that are impacted by the winter weather.
"The most challenging part was obviously the temperatures, just the extreme chill," GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale said.
The hard freeze overnight Wednesday led to lots of ice, which was tough for plow crews to get through despite pre-treating thousands of miles of roadway with tens of thousands of gallons of brine, then shifting to thousands of tons of salt and gravel.
One driver applauded GDOT crews for their work.
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"Stay warm. You're doing a great job. Keep it up. Maybe they had some good planning this year," Corey Thomas said.
Dale said the agency has fielded its fair share of complaints.
"It is frustrating sometimes when people don't understand just how hard our crews are working day in and day out to keep the roads safe for them, putting themselves in some very dangerous situations," she said.
GDOT worker Carey Ellerbee died Thursday morning when a train hit his salt truck in Coweta County.
"That's hard to find, someone who is gung ho and excited to get out there in dangerous conditions, sometimes deadly conditions, put their life on the line in many cases, to make sure that road is safe for someone else," Dale said. "Sometimes instead of asking, 'Why aren't you done yet?" and "How long is it going to take?" maybe take a step back and think about what these men and women are doing to make things better for you."
GDOT said this week's weather put a big dent in its local salt stockpile, but it's already working to move more material in from south Georgia. GDOT said it will have more than enough salt in place for the next storm.