Black ice affecting Carter County higher elevation roads

ELIZABETHTON — As the snow and ice have disappeared from most Carter County roads on Wednesday, a new hazard is causing problems for motorists and the Carter County Highway Department. Black ice affected many county roads and highways at higher elevations during the morning. Carter County Highway Superintendent Shannon Burchett said his crews were out early spreading salt and trying to make an impact on the treacherous conditions. Burchett said conditions are expected to be bad on Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service predicted rain and snow will fall in the mountains Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The weather service also issued a special weather statement that temperatures were expected to fall into the 20's on Wednesday night. Any wet spots on the road from rain or melting snow will re-freeze and create black ice on Thursday morning, especially on untreated roads. The weather service advised motorists to use caution. Burchett said the black ice has already impacted one of the highway department's vehicles. He said his crews were out Wednesday morning, spreading ice and clearing icy spots when an approaching motorist could not stop because of the black ice. Burchett said the car struck the department's pickup truck which has a salt spreader attached to it. The car struck a rear corner of the truck. Neither the motorist or the county employee suffered serious injury in the accident. Burchett said the county truck was still operable after the accident and the damage is repairable. The department has to use a lot of salt on the roads with black ice. The frigid weather over the past two weeks have had a big impact on the county's salt supply, but Burchett said the county did receive two loads of salt from an order placed in December, with the promise another was going to be delivered soon. Burchett said that by Wednesday afternoon the county had about 200 tons of salt in its bins. He said there is also a large amount of salt that has been stored from several years ago that is mixed with small gravel and chat. It is hard to estimate how much salt is in that pile, but Burchett estimates that it is about 900 tons. The department used some of this pile on the black ice on Wednesday.