The state’s Department of Transportation is urging drivers in north and middle Georgia to stay off the roads for travel if at all possible.

The DOT has its full staff of about a thousand workers on call, with more than 500 on duty currently. More than 800 pieces of equipment are sweeping north and middle Georgia with sand and salt.

The DOT’s Jill Goldberg says as freezing rain and sleet begins to fall, it will only make the job tougher for DOT workers:

“It’s hard to know what areas of the road are cold enough to form ice right away, so you just have to keep sending your trucks all over. And once cars get on the road, it becomes even more difficult to treat. It’s just very hard to do it.”

Goldberg says this is a much bigger weather event for the DOT to handle compared to the Christmas weekend snow that fell mainly in north Georgia, and only spanning a few hours.

With this weather system, areas of middle Georgia were already getting freezing rain and sleet early Monday morning. National Weather Service forecasters expected that to move northward through the day Monday, making travel dangerous.

Tags: weather, National Weather Service, DOT, middle Georgia, snow, Edgar Treiguts, ice, GPB, freezing rain, Jill Goldberg