Surviving the Ice Storms
City of Garland Team Leader, Renaldo Mack, is Ready to Tell His Story
Record breaking temperatures have hit North Texas as snow droughts end in the midst of a pandemic. This also contributed to one of the worst car pile-ups that many have ever seen that occurred on I35 in Fort Worth. The accident included an estimated 100 cars, along with 18 Wheelers, and multiple fatalities. These extreme conditions have put an added toll on making sure the roads are safe for those who are essential to the economy and for those simply in need of essentials.
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Some fields require employees to walk a humble path. For example, the sound man at church may not always be recognized for ensuring the experience is adequate for visitors. However, if there is feedback on the mic in the middle of scripture reading, that just might turn a few heads leading to unwanted attention. Road workers in North Texas during these harsh winter times find themselves in similar predicaments. How many times have you or have you heard someone voice a complaint about the quality of roads and highways? How often do you hear these same workers complimented for their work? Granted, excuses are tools of incompetence, even then, character also tells us to give credit where it’s due. While many of us are sleeping at night or driving back and forth to work, the road workers in Garland, Tx have been literally working around the clock to make sure the roads are safe to make it even possible. After all, who wants to end up stranded while trying to get to work or find that a loved one has been involved in a serious accident on the way to work, similar to what happened in Fort Worth?
Communities Over Competition spoke with Renaldo Mack, a team leader who works year round in improving the quality of the roads in Garland. Mr. Mack shared with us what his work consists of, how freezing temperatures and conditions affect the roads, the challenges they face, and more.
“Most cities usually have 2-3 sand trucks that patrol their cities when temperatures freeze, Garland has 6. Roads freeze once the temperature hits 32 degrees and doesn't thaw out until it gets above 40. The most dangerous misconception is snow is the most dangerous when it really is sleet. At least with snow you can maintain some form of control. Sleet is completely unpredictable. Bridges, overpasses, intersections, turning lanes, roads that go uphill and downhill along with fire station entrances and hospital entrances are the areas we sand. Highways like 635, 75, 35, 20, PGBT, NTTA belong to the state so TxDot sands those Highways. We deploy a trail truck for each sand truck to act as a buffer to prevent cars from sliding into the sand trucks while they're in the process of sanding roads. It's a difficult and physically taxing job because the worse the weather the more we have to come in. And many of us live an hour away from Garland so we have to ease our way into work to do our best to make Garland as safe as possible.” - Mr. Mack
When asked about challenges that he’s seen as him and his team have been working through these conditions, he advised:
“The majority of the accidents that happen come between 5am-9am. People are in a hurry to get to work and try to drive regular speed to get there. I recommend 30mph TOPS on highway and 15-20 mph on city roads. Better to be late to work than end up wrecking into anything. Your life is more valuable to your family and friends than any job who'll replace you days later.”
Thanks to Mr. Mack, his team, and other workers across North Texas, commutes are continuously being made possible. Here at Communities Over Competition we send best wishes to the “wheels within the wheel” as they continue to travel their humble paths.
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