GDOT Commissioner reflects on storm response | www.ajc.com

Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Keith Golden is spearheading the effort to clear interstates and state routes.

He nodded off for about an hour and a half in his office overnight, but said otherwise he had not slept since gridlock gripped huge swaths of the Peach State.

Golden sat down for an exclusive interview Tuesday morning with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the Traffic Management Center in downtown Atlanta to discuss the disaster and the challenges that lay ahead.

QUESTION: What’s causing the biggest impact?

ANSWER: It’s the tractor-trailers. Those, and buses. Most of the challenge is getting to traffic events where tractor-trailers have jackknifed or slid and nobody can make their way around them.

Q: Why didn’t warnings not to drive go out earlier and with more emphasis Monday evening?

A: At the time, the forecast was for small accumulation in metro Atlanta. We’ve had numerous snow events since the 2011 event and we have handled them. It’s these events that come in so quickly… I think from our perspective, we were expecting a weather event and we certainly wanted everyone to be on guard for that. If we scream ‘stay home’ and nothing happens, it’s a scenario where we are not the weather people

via GDOT Commissioner reflects on storm response | www.ajc.com.